A gas pipe exploded after it was ripped open by a builder digging foundations for a garden wall.

More than 80 households also lost gas or electricity after the man using heavy-duty digging equipment in Berberis Close, Langdon Hills, tore through undergound gas piping and electricity cables.

Sparks from the cable sparked the leaking gas into a ball of flames during the incident, shortly before 4pm yesterday.

Firefighters arrived soon after and station officer Doug Sylvester said: "The flames must have been about four foot high.

"It was safer for us to leave it alone, because if you try to put it out while the gas is still flowing you risk causing an even bigger blaze. We think the builder was digging the foundations for a garden wall."

Nobody was injured.

Spokeswoman for Transco Christine Riches (corr) said: "Our engineers arrived on the scene within 20 minutes of receiving a call. After extinguishing the flames they repaired the damaged pipe."