HOMES were plunged into darkness and a former school went up in flames following a violent storm in north Essex.

Residents in the Colchester and Tendring areas were awoken at around 3am yesterday, when the storm hit.

Thousands of homes were hit by power cuts as lightning and torrential rain battered the area.

Despite the ferocity of the storm, its path of destruction was minimal, with only electricity supplies being severely affected.

Brief power shortages struck at about 3am.

But almost 300 homes were not so lucky, with engineers still working throughout the day yesterday to get the electricity supply back up and running.

An EDF Energy spokesman said: "EDF Energy Networks engineers have been working to restore power to about 280 customers in the Colchester and Clacton areas, as a result of overhead line damage caused by the lightning storm during the early hours."

Emergency services were only called to deal with a few minor storm-related incidents.

But flooding caused concern in Tiptree, where a motorists called police in the early hours to report "a large quantity of water" gathering on the corner of Maypole Road.

It is not thought any action was taken.

Firefighters were also called to the former Harwich Primary School, in Main Road, Harwich, at 4.20am yesterday.