Supermarket shoppers have been asked to put their groceries back on the shelves following a power cut.

KentOnline understands customers inside the Morrisons in Wincheap, Canterbury, were told to return their items due to the outage just before midday today.

An eyewitness, who was inside the store at the time, says staff made the announcement after they found their tills were left out of action.

Hundreds of residents in the city and its surrounding areas have also been left without power after the power cut, with electricity expected to return between 3.30pm and 4.30pm.

"Our engineers are on their way," a UK Power Networks spokesman said.

"We believe the issue is a fault on the underground network that initially interrupted power to 3,264 properties.

"However, we have managed to divert power back to some properties, so currently 354 properties are still affected.

"Specialist engineers from our control room will continue to divert power remotely, so it's possible for your power to come back on at any point.

"Sometimes we can't restore everyone this way, so we're also sending staff to check our equipment.

"We're currently estimating power will be on by 3.30pm to 4.30pm, but this may change depending on what our staff find."

A Morrisons spokesman said shortly after 1pm: "We experienced a very short power cut at our Canterbury store but can confirm the store is now back open as normal.

"We're sorry for any inconvenience caused."