A power cut which hit shops in Braintree cost traders thousands of pounds in lost profit
A fault on a high-voltage network cut electricity to the town centre for nearly five hours.
Two shoppers in Tesco, Market Place, were stuck in a lift for 20 minutes.
A fire crew from Braintree manually reeled the lift to the nearest floor.
The cut mainly hit businesses, with one side of George Yard, including Boots and the Quadrant store, being blacked out.
The blackout began at about 10.30am yesterday. Power was restored to some customers by 12.30pm and the last were switched back on by 3pm.
Maggie Cross, manager of the Computer Rescue shop in George Yard, said: "We are affected about twice a year. Each time it hits our profits because we cannot use the tills."
A spokesman for Tesco said it lost £12,000 to £15,000 of trade during the cut.
A spokeswoman for EDF Energy, the electricity network provider, said: "EDF Energy would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused."
Published Friday July 30, 2004
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