Bow flooding: Hundreds of homes left without water in heatwave as main bursts

Hundreds of homes were left without water and over 150 without power in east London during the scorching heatwave as a burst water caused serious flooding.

Five people had to be rescued from a pub by firefighters as they responded to the flooding on Old Ford Road in Bow overnight.

A water main burst outside a pub shortly before 10.30pm on Wednesday night, flooding the surrounding area up to a depth of a metre, the London Fire Brigade said.

Six fire engines and around 40 firefighters were dispatched to deal with the aftermath. Grove Road was among other roads also affected.

Firefighters used flood barriers and sandbags to divert flood water away from homes and water levels subsided overnight.

Up to 650 households were affected by a loss of power, water or gas overnight. Some local infrastructure was also impacted, LFB said.

Footage shared online showed the extent of the flooding.

The loss of water and power came as London sweltered overnight after another hot day when it hit 32C in London. The coolest overnight temperature was 19.9C at 5am.

Thames Water said in an update on its website at 9.45am: "Our teams on site have stopped the flooding and are working to put things right. Your water supply should now have returned, the pressure may be lower than normal, but this will improve as it builds in the pipe.

"Our customer teams are in the area, please do speak to them if you need any support.

"Unfortunately, we're likely to be in the area for some time as we need to fix the broken pipe and make good any damage caused by the flooding. We'll be working around the clock to fix things, and apologise in advance for any disruption caused."

A UK Power Networks spokesperson said: “Engineers were called to the Old Ford Road area of Bow in East London in the early hours of this morning due to a burst water main.For safety reasons, power was isolated to 159 customers at 00:48am, with all but one being restored by 03:58am.

“Engineers are awaiting access to the final property to safely check their power supply.”

LFB worked alongside Thames Water and Tower Hamlets Council to set up a rest centre for affected residents.

Road closures remain in place on Old Ford Road whilst repairs are carried out by Thames Water.

Traffic disruption can be expected on surrounding roads, including St Stephen's Road and Roman Road.

Gas provider Cadent have been contacted for information on loss of gas.