Power cut hits city

Traffic came to a standstill in Gloucester as lights cut out

There was rush-hour chaos in part of Gloucester on Wednesday morning when traffic lights in the city were blacked out in a power cut.

More than 70,000 homes and businesses were left in the dark, schools were closed and traffic signals went off at about 0800BST.

Pupils at 18 schools were turned away and as the power cut spread, police switchboards were jammed and burglar alarms were going off across the city.

Most of those affected were in Gloucester, but customers in Cheltenham and Tewkesbury also suffered a loss of power.

Engineers from power company Aquila Networks began switching customers to alternative supplies immediately and all customers had electricity restored by just after 0930BST.

Reduced voltage

The fault was traced to Gloucester's main substation site. Engineers were working on site to identify the cause of the fault and complete permanent repairs.

As a precaution to safeguard electricity supplies to all customers whilst repairs are completed Aquila reduced the voltage in the area for the rest of the day.

The company said lights may appear to be dimmer and electrical appliances like kettles may take longer to boil.

Kenton Bradbury, managing director of asset management at Aquila said: "I want to apologise to everyone affected and reassure them that we are working hard with National Grid to return the situation to normal."