Hundreds of homes without power in Gillingham

Hundreds of homes were left without power in north Kent following an electrical fault.

The outage, which initially affected 2,820 customers in Gillingham, started just after 1400 GMT on Friday.

UK Power Networks said supplies were restored to more than half the homes by about 1540 GMT and by 2015 GMT 180 properties were still waiting to be reconnected.

A spokeswoman apologised for the inconvenience the power cut had caused.

She added: "Work is continuing to reconnect all supplies as swiftly as we can.

"We understand how difficult it is to be without electricity, particularly in such cold weather, and would like to apologise to those customers who are affected."

The firm said engineers restored power to 27 homes in Tunbridge Wells at about 1350 GMT. They had been without electricity following an underground cable fault for more than 20 hours.