HEAVY rain and thunderstorms have caused travel disruption and flooding across Scotland.
Train passengers and motorists face disruption due to the conditions this morning. ScotRail tweeted that due to "extremely heavy rain" and flooding on the railway, services across the country will be delayed or cancelled.
A ScotRail passenger train dereailed in Aberdeenshire this morning after the extreme weather.
The First Minister has confirmed there are reports of “serious injuries” as a huge emergency service presence was on the scene.
Speaking at FMQs, the First Minister said: "My immediate thoughts and the thoughts of those across the chamber are with all those involved."
The Scottish Government's resilience room is also now operational, and Nicola Sturgeon said she will convene a meeting this afternoon.
READ MORE: Reports of 'serious injuries' after train derails in Aberdeenshire, FM confirms
Passengers were advised to check before travelling and consider alternative transport where possible.
On the roads, some vehicles were recovered after they were abandoned amid flooding on the M8, which was partly closed for a time but later reopened.
A Police Scotland spokesman said: "We were made aware of flooding on the M8 between junctions 5 and 6 in Lanarkshire shortly before 4am on Wednesday, 12 August.
"No injuries have been reported and officers have assisted partner agencies."
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said it was called to multiple reports of flooding in the Perthshire area, with many domestic properties affected.
Perth and Kinross Council said several roads in the area were impassable due to flooding.
At 7am, the council tweeted that Feus Road/Marshall Place/Wallace Crescent/Crammond Place/Crieff Road/Glasgow Road and A912 at Bogle Bridge were affected, while surface water was causing problems in many other areas.
Pictures posted on social media showed cars half-submerged in floodwater in streets in Perth.
In Fife, a landslide caused the closure of the A921 between Kinghorn and Burntisland. Police urged motorists to use an alternative route.
BT's incident management team said a major outage at an exchange in Edinburgh, caused by the weather, was affecting about 100,000 customers' broadband on BT, EE and Plusnet in the city and surrounding area.
It was reported at 6.30am and engineers were on site working on the issue.
A spokesperson for the company said: “Severe storms and flooding in Edinburgh last night damaged some broadband equipment in our exchange buildings. As a result, some customers in Edinburgh and a small number of other locations in Scotland may be unable to connect to the internet.
"Engineers are doing everything they can to restore any affected customers as soon as possible. Due to the extent of the damage, we expect engineers to complete their work in the exchanges later today – at which point we’ll be able to assess any further related impact. Most phone and mobile services are not affected and we’re very sorry for any inconvenience.”
The Met Office has issued a yellow warning of thunderstorms for the eastern half of Scotland which is in force until midnight tonight.
It warned that some places are likely to see "further severe thunderstorms", but with "significant uncertainty in location and timing".
The warning covers Central, Tayside and Fife, Angus, Clackmannanshire, Dundee, Falkirk, Fife, Perth and Kinross and Stirling.
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