More than 500 businesses and homes in the centre of Maidstone were left without electricity this morning.

A power cut at 11am affected a total of 578 different homes and businesses, including The Mall Chequers shopping centre on King Street.

The fault was completely repaired just after midday, although engineers managed to restore power to 91 customers by 11:48am.

It is believed the source of the problem was from a damaged underground power cable and an investigation is now underway to find out caused the error.

A spokesman from UK Power Networks said the company apologises for any inconvenience.