Engineers battle to restore power

The roof was ripped off a Newton Mearns primary school

Power companies have drafted in helicopters and extra engineers as they attempt to restore electricity supplies to thousands of homes in Scotland.

Road, rail and ferry services were returning to normal on Tuesday as the clean-up continued after some of the worst weather of recent years.

Four people died north of the border as hurricane-force winds of up to 120 miles per hour caused widespread disruption on Monday.

Engineers are working to restore power

At its peak up to 90,000 people were left without power north of the border.

Hundreds of Scottish Power workers fought to fix damage from Fife to the Borders.

On Tuesday evening the company said 10,000 customers remained without supplies.

Scottish Hydro Electric said the number of its customers affected had dropped from 40,000 on Monday to 3,000 late on Tuesday, mainly in Aberdeenshire, Argyll and Tayside.

The company has drafted in extra staff from England and a spokeswoman said engineers were travelling with helicopter crews to find damage on remote power lines.

'Slight hiccup'

She said: "We found it was the most efficient way to repair the lines.

"The engineers ride on the helicopters and when they spot particular problems they can direct pilots to the area.

"We had a slight hiccup this morning as the helicopters were unable to fly because we have had quite bad snow."

There was no repeat on Tuesday of the disruption experienced on the roads and on ferry services.

Roads were affected by the windy conditions

Railtrack - which suspended almost all its Scottish services on Monday afternoon - said all the damaged lines had re-opened, with the exception of the route to Helensburgh.

Delays were being experienced on Virgin west coast main line services, while GNER was operating a reduced service on the east coast main line.

Building control officials have also been assessing the level of damage, although insurance companies said it was too early to assess the financial cost.

Lines affected

Forecasters warn that more bad weather could be on the way before the end of the week.

All flood warnings from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) were dropped on Tuesday, but the situation is still being closely monitored.

Heavy rain and melting snow in the upper hills was expected to cause water levels to rise in the Spey, Tay and Earn rivers and their tributaries.

Vulnerable areas include the River Tay from Kenmore to the A9 road bridge, the Dunkeld to Perth stretch of the Tay and the River Earn from Comrie to Bridge of Earn.

Flood warnings have been issued

The weather damage cut the power to the Torosay television transmitter on Mull, which serves an area.

Rigside Primary School near Biggar in South Lanarkshire was also closed by a power failure, although all the area's other schools remain open.

Seven primary schools and one secondary are closed in Fife, as are five schools in West Lothian.

A 12-year-old girl was said to be in a stable condition at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow after being hit by a falling tree.

Angela Henshaw suffered head injuries in the accident near Douglas Academy in Milngavie, near Glasgow, on Monday afternoon.