tonight at six. .. a desperate search for survivors after mudslides in california leave at least 15 people dead. rivers of mud and huge boulders crashing into homes — leaving dozens trapped. we dug down and found a little baby. i don't know where it came from. we got it out, got the mud out of its mouth. i hope it's ok. they took it right to the hospital. another survivor pulled to safety but officials fear the number of dead could rise. the firefighters won't let us go up there any further. they say the situation can change in the blink of an eye. as you can see, this is how dangerous it is. some of those affected now are the very ones who faced wildfires last month. also tonight... british factories are booming — the longest run in manufacturing growth for 20 years. the former football coach accused of dozens of child sex offences. the court hears from an alleged victim. and lost and stranded

on a cornish beach. rescuers struggle to cope with the number of seal coming up in sportsday on bbc news... arsene wenger must watch from the stands again as arsenal play chelsea in the efl cup semifinal first leg at stamford bridge. good evening and welcome to the bbc news at six. at least 15 people have been killed by mudslides and flash floods in southern california. rescue workers are now mounting a desperate search for survivors, fearing that hundreds of people might still be trapped. many of those affected now are the very same people who last

month fled from wild fires. the extreme weather has hit carpinteria, santa barbara and montecito, from where our correspondent, james cook, reports. coast, ordeal by the elements continues. first, they enjoyed the largest buyerin first, they enjoyed the largest buyer in the state's history. next came torrential rain, more intense than anyone here could remember. then, within minutes, destruction, caused by an unstoppable wall of mud and debris. this 14—year—old survived. even she does not know how. firefighters using rescue dogs heard her screams and worked for hours to pull her from the wreckage of her home. herfamily‘s hours to pull her from the wreckage of her home. her family's fate hours to pull her from the wreckage of her home. herfamily‘s fate is unknown. everyone here, it seems, has their own incredible story of a struggle to survive. once the

boulders and trees came through our house we climbed up onto the roof and waited till the creek went down and waited till the creek went down a bitand and waited till the creek went down a bit and then we climbed off the roof and got to our neighbour's. we just got pulled out of there by the firefighters. police are now rescuing neighbours. we heard a little baby crying. we dug down and found a little baby. we got it out, got the mud out of its mouth. i'm hoping it's ok. they took it right to the hospital. but it wasjust a baby, four feet down in the mud, under the rocks. i'm glad we got him. a mother and her newborn baby are winched to safety. the little girl makes it onto the roof of her

seven—year—old brother is saved as well. terrifying moments but they are the lucky well. terrifying moments but they m ”czl-lu; iii-f 1rl—‘tfl-‘ifx12'rm3’ created ”czl-lu; iee 1rl—‘tfl-‘ifx12'rm3’ created if situationf ” ' ' ”czl-lu; iee 1rl—‘tfl-‘ifx12'rm3’ created if situation where ' ' ”czl-lu; iee 1rl—‘tfl-‘ifx12'rm3’ created? situation where the i fire created a situation where the dirt was able to wash down. had we still had all the vegetation on the hills it would not have been as much ofan hills it would not have been as much of an issue. montecito. why did it happen? the area soaked had been affected with wildfires. the earth was baked, leaving it slick and hard. the water had nowhere to go but down, fast, into the town of montecito with devastating effect. this is one of the most exclusive communities in the united states, home to stars including actor rob

lowe and tv presenter alan degeneres. oprah winfrey posted a video from her garden. see how deep the mud is. the destruction was not confined to the coast. further inland, in burbank, a “j‘s-te of confined to the coast. further inland, in burbank, a e mg inland, in burbank, a suburb of los angeles, the cameras captured another mudslide in action. the mud roared down here with terrifying speed, sweeping everything in its path. firefighters will not let us go path. firefighters will not let us 9° up path. firefighters will not let us go up that any further. they say the situation could change in the blink ofan situation could change in the blink of an eye. as you can see, this is how dangerous it is. the pacific coast was hardest hit. the financial cost will be immense. the human toll, even higher. james cook, bbc news, montecito. we can go live to james now. what is

the latest you have on the rescue operation? well, the scene around me here is one, as you can see, of com plete here is one, as you can see, of complete devastation. the power of the mud as it charged down from the mountains was quite immense. it has left parts of houses smashed to pieces and strewn across the road. the rescue operation does continue. we have seen helicopters overhead in the last three minutes ferrying people backwards and forwards, presumably trying to get people out. we have had no more formal details on how that is going. the last we heard there were some 300 people trapped in one area alone. this is a very difficult, very intense situation still. there are also questions about why people were not evacuated. some evacuation warnings we re evacuated. some evacuation warnings were given but were they given for

the right areas and where they strong enough? perhaps, should people have listened to them more intently? thank you very much. there's a boom in goods made in britain. manufacturing output in the uk has reached its highest level in nearly a decade, after showing growth for seven months in a row — that's according to the office for national statistics. the sector has been boosted by a strong global economy and the devaluation of the pound since the brexit vote, which makes exports relatively cheaper. our economics editor, kamal ahmed, reports. the sound of better economic news, and the manufacturers making the goods a faster growing world is demanding. the weakness in the value of the pound makes everything britain sells abroad more competitive, and firms that export are taking advantage. so this machine actually is a high—end machine... like brandauer in birmingham. among other high—tech materials, it makes the switches for 90% of all the kettles in the world, billions of them.

its order books for household goods, the car sector and aerospace are bulging. we've always exported a huge percentage of what we make. currently, that's around 70—75%. global growth of our customers and the manufacturing supply chain means growth for us. our customers are doing well, and technology demands are ever—increasing, which means brandauer as a net result will do well. it's been a ten year roller—coaster for britain's makers. manufacturing suffered badly in the financial crisis and has only slowly recovered since. but, in the last year, things have taken a turn for the better and output is now at its highest since april 2008. behind these betterfigures is a big economic trend, global growth. for the first time since the financial crisis ten years ago, all the economic centres, the usa, china, japan

and the rest of europe, are seeing stronger growth, and that rising tide is lifting britain and confidence is flowing back. it's not all good news. construction figures are poor and there are still the problems of falling wages and the increase in prices. many economists warn that britain is not out of the economic woods, including a former adviser to the chancellor. what we've seen in the uk relative to elsewhere is growth relatively stable. that is still better than most predicted at the start of 2017, because the brexit negotiation was expected to have a more dampening impact on growth, but the global environment has actually ended up being much stronger, and i think that has supported uk activity. the uk is still the laggard, though. businesses have been more hesitant about expanding, whereas elsewhere in the world confidence is much stronger and we have seen more business spending.

manufacturing is a bright point, but atjust 10% of the uk economy it's not everything. the strength of britain overall will only become clear when the full set of figures are published at the end of the month. many economists believe they will now be more positive than expected. the chancellor philip hammond has said the european union should stop talking about "punishing" the uk over brexit. he'll make the warning in a speech in berlin tonight and kamaljoins me now. do you detect a more robust tone from the chancellor? i certainly do. 2018 will be very tight timetable for those european union negotiations. philip hammond, in this speech is certainly a change of tone. he supported remaining in the european union. he talks about it taking two to tango. the use should

stop talking about punishing the uk over brexit. he is really saying, you need to help us find some solutions. other countries, canada, america and australia are offering free trade deals europe, what you going to put on the table? in brussels it may raise a few eyebrows. they say, britain decided to leave the european union. you broke it, you fix it. they are saying it is for britain to come to the table with solutions. as we have heard time and again, it does not wa nt heard time and again, it does not want britain to be better off outside the user and it was inside the eu. we cannot have, brussels says, our cake and eat it. police in stockport have found human remains in a suburban back garden. their search comes after a woman went to the police at the weekend and told detectives she had killed a man. our north of england correspondent, judith moritz, is in stockport for us. judith, what more can you tell us?

well, george, the police say on sunday afternoon a 63—year—old woman walked into a police station not far from here and confessed to having killed a man several years ago and buried him in the garden. that's pa rt buried him in the garden. that's part a forensic search and last night detectives confirmed that they have found human remains at the property. the bbc understands that the body that has been found is that ofa man the body that has been found is that of a man called kenneth combs and the woman, who is now talking to detectives on suspicion of murder is his daughter. neighbours have been askedif his daughter. neighbours have been asked if they remember the family. the police say a postmortem examination should give more information into course about how and when he died. the trial of the former football coach barry bennell on charges of child sexual offences has — for the first time — heard from an alleged victim.

a man who claims he was sexually abused as a child has told the court that bennell had what he called a "power hold" over young boys who dreamt of being professional players. barry bennell, who's now known as richard jones, denies 48 charges of child sexual abuse. our sports editor, dan roan, reports. backin back in the 1980s, barry bennell worked with some of the most promising young footballers in the north—west of england. youth team coach at crewe alexandra. he also had links with manchester city. liverpool crown court has told the 64—year—old, who now causes of richard jones, exploited young boys dreams of becoming footballers in order to sexually abuse them. with bennell watching on via video link, thejury bennell watching on via video link, the jury was shown footage of the complainants interview. he first met him when he came as a scout for manchester city. the alleged victim said he was abused up to 100 times along with other boys by bennell at

his home and in a shop he owned in derbyshire village. he had up to three boys share a bed with him. the said none dare speak out for fear of jeopardising their football prospects. it was almost like an u ntold prospects. it was almost like an untold rule, he said. he had a big power hold over us. the court was shown a recording of this bbc programme from november 2016 featuring other alleged victims which the complainant said left him in complete meltdown, prompting him to co nta ct in complete meltdown, prompting him to contact police for the first time. appearing behind a screen in court he was ci’oss time. appearing behind a screen in court he was cross examined by the defence, and asked if his complaint was financially motivated. i am not in itfor was financially motivated. i am not in it for the money, he said. the court was read transcripts from bennell‘s interview with the police. he said he has had no sexual contact

with him and remembered thinking he was the one that got away with it he was the one that got away with it he was not one of my victims. it is impossible. the trial continues. our top story this evening: a desperate search for survivors after mudslides in california leave 15 people dead, and officials warn the death toll could rise. and still to come: the man behind wallace and grommit on how he's created his latest characters. coming up on sportsday on bbc news: double amputee billy monger is back behind the wheel and training to be a stunt driver. the teenager lost both his lower legs in an accident last year. in the last few years, dozens of british citizens have travelled to syria to volunteer in the fight against so—called islamic state. today the bodies of two men killed in battle have been brought back to the uk. jac holmes and oliver hall fought with kurdish forces. the parents of jac holmes say

they are proud of him, and were unable to prevent him from going. they've been speaking to emma va rdy. the road outside the cargo area of heathrow became the scene of tributes, as the bodies of two men, carried from syria by iraq and jordan, arrived home. both 2a and both with no previous military training, jac holmes and oliver hall had a desire tojoin the battle against is. well, for me, it was a personal choice. i wanted to fight against isis and i wanted to help the situation over here in iraq and syria. jac holmes, a former it workerfrom bournemouth, was just 21 when he first travelled to syria and his parents discovered his plans. as we went to move a bit of furniture, opened a drawer to make sure it was empty and found his flight confirmation. i had to leave the house pretty quickly because i was so angry with him. i had all these messages and missed calls and stuff. when i picked up the messages, it was jac and he said,

"mum, i'm up a mountain. "i've crossed the border and i'm in syria." he spent two years fighting with the kurdish armed group the ypg, which has allowed many western volunteers to join its ranks. but fighting abroad with any militia, say british authorities, is against the law. morally, what was your stance on whatjac was doing? i thinkjac had always has had a sense of helping the underdog, helping people. morally, i don't have an issue if he has killed any daesh fighters, not at all. i think, if you speak to most people on the street, they would say the same. just days after the battle for the de facto is capital raqqa was over, jac was killed by a suicide belt left behind. my name is oliver hall and i came here of my own free will, knowing all of the risks and consequences that can follow.

oliver hall from gosport had travelled to syria in august. his mother was told he was checking to make sure an area was safe for civilians when he was killed by an ied. a ceremony forjac holmes and oliver hall was held in syria as they began the journey home. people from the kurdish community in the uk have gathered here at heathrow today to pay tribute to two men who took up their cause to fight against so—called islamic state. whatjac holmes and oliver hall did is something the british authorities have tried to deter people from but, for those here today, they will be remembered as heroes. i'm immensely proud of my son, really. you know, your average 22—year—old is more concerned about who is winning x factor. i'll neverforget him.

of course i won't. seven british men in total have died with the ypg in syria in the war which has seen so many british men and women drawn to it, with many lives lost. emma vardy, bbc news. cancer patients at a specialist nhs hospital could face delays to their treatment due to a major shortage of staff. that's the warning from a senior doctor in a leaked memo to staff at churchill hospital in oxford. he says the number of specialist nurses at the hospital is down by 40% — nearly a half. our health editor hugh pym is outside the hospital in oxford. i wonderjust how worried patients in the oxford area, cancer patients, should be about this? the trust which runs this hospital says patients should be completely reassured there has been no change in policy whatsoever and they should continue to expect high standards of

ca re continue to expect high standards of care but in a timely fashion, but this leaked e—mail shows that doctors there are seriously concerned about workforce shortages, difficulties recruiting trained cancer nurses, and they think chemotherapy will be affected. they are considering reducing the doses for patients who are terminally ill. it has been said that, for some patients who don't need chemotherapy urgently, there are delays of one to two weeks, but the trust says that is still within the target. the trust has acknowledged there are serious problems with workforce in the area and difficulties recruiting, and cancer research uk says this issue must be urgently addressed. conservation charities say they've been "overwhelmed" by the number of stranded seals found along the cornish coast over the last few weeks. record numbers of sick and abandoned pups have been discovered — after a series of winter storms and high tides. rescue centres say they are struggling to cope, as jon kay reports. on a suburban estate... 0k, shall we get them out? a pop—up seal sanctuary. with the local rescue centres full,

these orphaned pups are having to be housed in a garage near st ives. father and son david and dan are fully trained and caring for the seals 21w. are you struggling to cope? we're at the point where we really are. this sort of speaks for itself, having all of these guys here. the rehab centres just don't have the space to handle this many pups in such a short amount of time. every day, volunteers from the group are racing to the cornish coast to rescue unprecedented numbers of sick and starving pups, orphaned and injured in winter storms. here's the tube in the corner of its mouth... providing emergency food is the easy bit. finding them somewhere to recuperate is much more difficult. they've had nearly 300 call—outs already this winter. we've been out 55 times this year so far. what, since the 1st of january?

since the 1st of january, we've had 55 calls and we've rescued 25. the situation we find ourselves in is completely shocking beyond belief. so why are things so bad this winter? because we've had a succession of storms over really high tides, flooded all the beaches, washed all those seal pups out without enough food inside them to survive. at cornwall‘s seal sanctuary, there is no room left. some pups have had to be taken to rescue centres hundreds of miles away. in the hospital wing, this one has an eye infection. he has to be covered while he's treated to stop him biting. staff don't expect it to get quiet any time soon. we are onlyjust in the middle part of the pup season at the moment, and that season doesn't generally finish until about march, april time. so, as you can imagine, we're going to have quite a considerable number coming in at that point. it's notjust south—west england.

rescue teams all around the uk are reporting record numbers of seals needing help. once these pups have recovered, they'll be sent back into the sea, but conservationists say, if we're going to avoid an accommodation crisis next winter, we need to start planning now. jon kay, bbc news, cornwall. it's the bristol—based animation company that gave us wallace and grommit and shaun the sheep. now, aardman and its oscar—winning director, nick park are about to unveil a new film, a prehistoric comedy called early man. it's been five years in the making and nick park has been showing our arts editor, will gompertz, exactly how he's made his creations come to life on the big screen. the initial idea was, you know, what if cavemen invented football? and i hadn't seen a prehistoric underdog sports movie before. come on, everyone.

let's show them what we've got. this is one of my first sketches. i loved sketching all the time. that's where the characters tend to come from. and are you thinking as you sketch in terms of plasticine? yes, i do. i think 3—d all the time, and i'm always drawing as if they have dimensions. i'm thinking about how they will interpret, how they will translate into models. what strange magic is this? we try and prepare for every shot before the animator starts. we do quite often live—action videos, so nick will act out almost the entire film in front of camera, and we go through that with him, and that's our starting point. we wanted, following nick's initial brief, to keep it all looking very handmade, so all of these sections are made of plasticine, but the mechanics inside are made

of lots of different materials. underneath, we have armatures, which we make all in—house. they look something a little bit like this. so we have sort of ball and socketjoint in here, and hinged joints and rotates, and fundamentally that's what sort of sits inside our main characters. just a little bit more! there are aspects of it, are there not, which hark back to your earliest days, back to wallace and gromit. yeah, i know. at the heart of it, it is these two characters. dug is a cavemen and his pet hog hognob. i set out to try and be a bit different to wallace and gromit, but i guess there is a sort of default. i can't help it. the eyes are close together and there is a sort of man and dog sort of relationship, i guess. i mean, as man and hog in this case. it's one thing trying to make it a film you want to make and to stay true to your vision.

but you are hoping that it also does work for people out in the audience. time for a look at the weather. here's helen willetts. rather quiet across the uk at the moment, which is good compared to around the world. some sunshine today, but this band of cloud and rain is still making for gloomy conditions across the eastern side of the country. further west, we had problems with fog, with a spate of accidents with poor visibility. it is taken up again notjust for northern ireland but across many parts of england and wales, where we have had that sunshine today, in south—western scotland as well. that will be coupled with temperatures close to frigging, especially in the countryside, so it could be icy and could be freezing frog. ——

temperatures close to freezing. parts of south scotland, across north—west england, the midlands, eastern parts of wales, perhaps devon and the west country, central southern england, more widespread than this morning, and there is also the complication of the weather front further east, with some low—level fog over the hills, but possibly at lower levels with holes in the cloud. it would take a while for the fog to play tomorrow morning, and then there will be some sunshine, but not as widespread as today. —— for the fog to clear. some of the cloud coming back into kent. not as persistently wet as today, but still drizzly and cold. why friday, a bit more of a breeze to lift the fog from the west, but there could be a lot of morning fog and frost, a lot of cloud, and not much change over the weekend. in northern ireland, the weatherfront

gets stuck, and just to reiterate its going to get quite foggy out there from now until tomorrow morning, and it might not clear in some parts tomorrow morning. that's all from the bbc news at six. it's goodbye from me and, on bbc one, we nowjoin the bbc‘s news teams where you are. this is bbc news — our latest headlines: at least 15 people have died in powerful mudslides in southern california. flash floods sent a torrent of mud and debris through a neighbourhood east of santa barbara. many people remain trapped, as rescue teams search for survivors. hopes remain high that more people will be pulled from the mud alive. we dug down, found a little baby, don't know where it came from. we got it out. we got the mud out of its mouth. new figures show uk manufacturing output is growing at its fastest rate for nearly a decade. lawyers acting on behalf of victims of the serial sex offender, john worboys, have written to the national probation service, asking for him to be banned from the greater london area. a body has been found

in a garden near stockport, after a woman told police she'd killed a man "a number of years ago". thousands of tourists have been left stranded after heavy snow in the alps cut off towns and villages across switzerland, france and italy. in a moment it will be time for sportsday, but first a look at what else is coming up this evening on bbc news. we'll be hearing about claims that cancer patients are facing possible delays to their treatment at an oxford hospital because of a shortage of staff. in beyond 100 days we'll be hearing why america's republican party is struggling as another top conservative calls it a day. and we will review the papers at 20 to 11. that's all ahead on bbc news.

now on bbc news it's time for sportsday. hello and welcome to sportsday — i'm hugh ferris. our headlines tonight: knocked out of the fa cup in his first match banned from the touchline — will arsene wenger‘s