More than 700 homes were left without power for more than three hours as temperatures dropped to near freezing.

A large area of Chatham was plunged into darkness from 4pm yesterday.

The blackout affected homes and businesses in Bridgewood, Walderslade and Blue Bell Hill and also meant the traffic lights at junction three of the M2 were out of action during the rush hour.

A total of 761 customers lost power. Supplies were restored to 706 customers by 7.19pm.

A further 54 were reconnected by 10.40pm and engineers are still working to restore power to one customer who was still affected on Friday morning.

A spokesman for UK Power Networks (formerly EDF) said the power cut was caused by a fault with an overhead power cable.

He added: “We understand how difficult it is to be without power, particularly in cold weather, and would like to apologise to those affected.”

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