Homes in a Kent village were without water today after a main burst.

The problem was in Heath Road, West Farleigh, Maidstone, and occurred just before 7am.

After more than nine hours without water the problem was fixed at 4.20pm.

South East Water said its staff started handing out bottled water in the car park of The White House, Hill Top, Hunton, at 1pm today.

Water was delivered to vulnerable customers who have registered with South East Water as having additional needs.

The company said some homes were experiencing low water pressure due to the damaged main, which is 4in in diameter.

Tony Hillocks, South East Water’s distribution manager, said earlier this afternoon: "Our team is at the site carrying out repairs and we are also looking at ways to re-route water around our system to get it flowing to taps again.

“At the moment, we believe 13 customers are without water and others may have low pressure.

“We know it is inconvenient to be without water and we are working as quickly as possible to restore supplies.

“Unfortunately emergencies like this do happen from time to time. We have 540 million litres of water a day being transported around 9,000 miles of underground pipeline.

"There are also six million joints, which have to withstand high pressure 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Inevitably sometimes these pipes and connections fail unexpectedly, but we work around the clock to repair them as quickly as possible.”

Anyone concerned about a vulnerable family member or neighbour can call South East Water's 24 hour emergency line on 0333 000 1100.