Temporary generators are supplying power to hundreds of homes in an east Norfolk village while engineers tackle an underground fault.

Hundreds of people in Ormesby St Margaret were affected by a power cut yesterday.

Almost 800 households were without electricity for most of the day after a major outage caused by an underground fault.

Engineers worked to restore supplies but have had to bring in generators to power some homes while they carry on with repairs.

A spokesman for UK Power Networks said: “Engineers worked as quickly and safely as possible to restore power to 796 customers in the Ormesby St Margaret area of Norfolk following an underground cable fault yesterday.

“Customers would have seen an interruption to their electricity supply at around 10.25am. Power was restored in stages with the final customer being restored at around 8pm.

“We understand how difficult it is to be without electricity and we would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused.

“Our priority is to get the power on in the first instance. In this case generators were the best option while the repair work continues. We will repair it as quickly as we can.”

Geoff Freeman, chairman of Ormesby St Margaret with Scratby Parish Council said, activity was focused in the field behind the pumping station in Decoy Road.

He said: “Obviously it is quite a major fault. I got in touch with UK Power Networks because we have a duty of care as a parish council. It could be there are vulnerable people and we do not know how long it is going to go on for. They were very helpful and have brought in additional generators. If it had happened in the winter there would have been more of a concern.”