A fallen tree and damage to underground cables caused two power cuts in Colchester.

The first struck 1,194 properties in the Brantham and East Bergholt areas when a tree affected power supplies on Friday morning.

Engineers restored supplies to most customers within an hour and reconnected the final customer supplies in the afternoon.

The second power failure hit 1,279 customers in the Lexden area, including Sainsbury's in Stanway.

A spokeswoman said: "Power supplies to 1,279 customers were interrupted in the Lexden area after a third party damaged one of our underground cables.

"Within a minute engineers were able to reconnect supplies to more than 400 customers and we managed to restore supplies to all except for approximately 50 customers by 12.27pm.

"Further work is being carried out to restore remaining supplies as quickly as possible."

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Published Monday, December 20, 2004

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