Bottles of water had to be distributed after taps ran dry for hundreds of town centre households.

About 400 homes were affected in the Hope Street and Fisher Street area of Maidstone yesterday (Wednesday).

Jim Macintyre, the incident manager for South East Water, said: “We are very sorry to customers in the Maidstone area who have experienced disruptions to their water supply since the early hours of yesterday morning.

“Two pipes near Royal Engineers Way burst impacting up to 400 properties.

“We understand that loss of pressure or water supply is frustrating and we thank customers for their patience and understanding.

“The repair work was completed and the majority of our customers are now back in supply, although we are aware of a small number of customers still without water.

“Our teams have delivered bottled water to customers on our priority services register of customers who have critical health conditions.

“We’re also returning Hope Street and Fisher Street to their original condition and aim to reopen them both by the end of today, Thursday.”