EMERGENCY repair work was needed to fix a burst water main which disrupted supplies to thousands of homes.

Staff at Southern Water worked to find and fix a burst in a 12-inch cast-iron water main which supplies Wigmore Road, Parkwood and the village of Bredhurst.

Approximately 3,200 properties were without water for about 90 minutes until workers were able to shut off the supply to the burst main and re-route water to properties.

Four properties remained without water for the duration of Thursday's repair, which took more than seven hours to complete.

Bottled water was supplied to those customers who requested it, as well as a local primary school.

Don Winzer, Southern Water's distribution team manager, said: "A combination of support from our customers and our own expertise has helped us overcome the problem.

"I am very pleased with the hard work of our staff and how they dealt with the situation.

I am glad to say that things are back to normal, but we couldn't have managed without the support of our customers and our team working to repair the burst."

Every day, Southern Water treats and transports 132million gallons of water along more than 8,000 miles of mains to one million properties and 2.3million customers.