48,000 homes hit by water and power cut

More than 40,000 households were without water after a power cut disabled one of London's main water pumping stations.

The loss of power affected 48,000 houses in the Twickenham area last night in what water company off icials described as "a major loss of supply".

A fault on the high voltage underground network cut supply to the water treatment works at Hampton, leaving householders with no running water from 8.45pm.

The power cut also left the same homes without electricity, although most had their supply restored within the hour.

Power was also back at the treatment works after an hour but the disruption meant engineers had to work through the night to restore water to homes.

A Thames Water spokesman said: "We had arrangements in place to switch to generators and back-up supplies, but it was a very big job and the process did involve some disruption."

A spokesperson for EDF Energy, the company which supplies electricity to the area, said: "It is too early to say what caused the fault.

"Something like this is very rare and we will now be investigating the cause."