An elderly woman was trapped in her home after it was hit by an electric cable which came down during a storm.

Some 44 homes in Minster were without power for more than 12 hours after the high-voltage cable, which was hit by a tree, came down in the early hours of Tuesday.

June Bright described seeing what she thought were fireworks over her house in Bell Farm Lane in the middle of the night.

A neighbour called and said a cable had fallen across her house.

It blocked two exits from the house. Two other cables were damaged during the storm.

Mrs Bright said: “There were blue flames shooting over the house and it looked like fireworks. It was really scary and I realised I could not get out of the house. I was trapped for what seemed like such a long time. I hope this never happens again.”

The cable was still live when a fire crew from Eastchurch turned up at about 12.40am to carry out safety checks and escort Mrs Bright from her home.

“I am so grateful that nobody was hurt,” said the 72-year-old. “It could have been

a lot worse. I am still really shaken but am so lucky there was no damage to the house.”

Neighbour Hazel Kimber,63, described hearing a bang in the middle of the night.

She said: “It was scary, I was lying in bed and heard a bang, then I saw all this flashing from outside so my husband got up and realised it was an electric pylon which had fallen over our neighbour’s house. I think she was quite traumatised by it.”

Engineers from EDF Energy carried out safety checks and repaired the damage which involved cutting off the electric supply.

Mrs Bright was not injured but according to

Dylan Collard, watch manager at Eastchurch fire station, was “slightly shaken” when crews, who stayed at the scene until just before 2am, arrived.

He said: “We calmed her down and reassured her that she was alright. We explained to her what we were doing.”

The electric supply was restored to the road at about 3.30pm on Tuesday.

A spokesman for EDF Energy said: “We sent a crew of linesman engineers to identify the damaged cable and carry out the repairs. We would like to apologise for the inconvenience.”