Thousands of families plunged into darkness for hours as Harrow power cut strikes

An unplanned power cut has plunged thousands of north London homes into complete darkness.

The power outage struck properties and street lights across Harrow, Stanmore and Wembley at 6pm on Sunday.

An underground electricity cable fault is being blamed for causing the power outage that is expected to last as late as 12.30am on Monday.

Residents took to social media to complain about house alarms continually ringing but others enjoyed the darkness laying on romantic candlelit dinners ahead of Valentine’s Day.

A National Grid spokesperson added: “We apologise for the disruption to consumers in North West London who have been disconnected this evening.

“Some have already been reconnected and engineers are working hard to ensure that all consumers are reconnected as soon as possible.”

A UK Power Networks statement read: “Our engineers are on their way.

“At this point we think the issue is a fault on the high voltage electrical network affecting several thousand properties.

“Specialist engineers from our control room are also working to divert power remotely, so it’s possible for your power to come back on at any point, but sometimes we can’t restore everyone this way.”