An electricity sub-station supplying power to hundreds of homes and businesses in Brompton has blown up, sending thick black smoke billowing into the sky.

People living and working in the area say they heard a big bang at about lunchtime today and immediately afterwards power in the area went out.

Firefighters from the Towns were called out at about 12.25pm to Melville Court, a high-rise block of flats to deal with the incident.

It is understood power in nearby homes and businesses in Brompton High Street were without power for about an hour, with houses in Melville Court still without power.

A spokesman for Kent Fire and Rescue Service said bosses had also sent along specialist volunteers and helpers from the Red Cross to help vulnerable people living in Melville Court complex, which is still without electricity.

Firefighters requested the help of engineers from UK Power networks to isolate the electricity supply to the sub-station and were then able to deal with the fire and had the incident under control by about 1.45pm.

The site, which is managed by Medway's largest landlord, mhs homes, is in Brompton Hill.

The outage has also affected the water supply to the complex and mhs homes representatives will be giving out water to tenants.

Andrew Bircher, assistant director of customer services at mhs homes added: "Our primary concern is with our customers and we have provided a list of our more vulnerable customers to Kent Fire and Rescue.

"Our staff are on site and we will continue to work with our partners to provide help until the situation is resolved.

"We will be delivering some water to customers affected.”

It is not known at this stage how long homes will be without power.

A spokesman for UK Power Networks said: "UK Power Networks engineers are working as quickly and as safely as possible to restore electricity supplies to 282 properties in Chatham following a fault on an underground cable at 11.36am today.

"Originally 1045 properties were affected but the majority had their electricity supplies restored within an hour.

"We understand how difficult it is to be without power and apologise for any inconvenience this is causing."