by Rebecca Hughes

A power cut in Strood has left almost 100 homes without electricity.

Residents in the area surrounding Frindsbury Road have been without electricity since 3am this morning (Monday) after a fire started underground.

Firefighters were called to the scene around 2am to tackle six feet of flames that were coming out of a manhole following an electrical fault.

Crews spent two hours tackling the flames and waiting for the UK Power Networks to arrive and start repairing the damage.

Engineers worked through the night to try and resolve the problem, but have so far been unable to restore power to the area.

A spokesman for UK Power Networks said engineers are still working to restore electricity supplies to the 94 customers ‘as quickly and safely as possible’.

He added: "Our engineers had to switch off some electricity supplies at 3.19am today in order to repair a fault on a piece of equipment on our underground electricity distribution network.

"We would like to apologise to customers for the inconvenience caused and can assure them we are working to reconnect power supplies as swiftly as possible."