A big section of Ashford town centre was plunged into darkness for two hours on Thursday night by a power cut.

The electricity suddenly went off at 10.05pm.

In a statement on its website UK Power Networks said the power cut was caused by: "An underground electricity cable faulted on our high voltage network, causing an area wide power cut.

"We are sorry for any trouble this may have caused you. If you are still experiencing problems try resetting your trip switches or contact us and we will be able to help."

UK Power Network added this morning: "Our engineers worked as quickly as possible to restore electricity supplies to customers in Ashford who were affected by a power cut at 10.05pm last night.

"After a fault on an underground cable interrupted supplies to 232 customers in the Park Street area all supplies were restored in stages in just over an hour (by 11.07pm). We are sorry for any inconvenience caused."

VIDEO: An area of the town lost power for two hours.

The company said the incident could have affected properties and businesses in the TN24 and TN23 poscode areas.

This power cut was reported at: 21-JUL-2016 22:05

Power was restored at approximately : 22-JUL-2016 00:00

KE reporter Molly Mileham-Chappell was inside The County Hotel in the Lower High Street when the power suddenly went off.

She said: "There was a mass power cut in town tonight at 10.05pm exactly. I was in the County Hotel when it went pitch black."

"The emergency lights came on in the building and many people were using their phone torch lights to see where they were going and what they were doing.

"The pubs cleared out quite quickly as it's a bit hard to eat and drink in the dark!

"I heard one of the bar staff ask a customer if the whole street was affected too and they said yes because they were looking out the window to see what was going on."