A flood caused by a burst water main brought chaos to drivers and badly damaged a Braintree road.

Residents in Notley Road were left without water overnight after the pipeline ruptured on Tuesday.

A deluge of water poured up through the pipes in a dip underneath the railway bridge near the junction with South Street at about 2pm.

Traffic was brought to a standstill and residents trying to get home were forced to give up and turn back or brave the knee-high water.

Within 30 minutes workman were at the scene trying to stop water which was rising at an alarming rate.

By 3pm the workman from Anglian Water had located the mains pipe and turned it off but it took the rest of the afternoon for the water to be cleared.

Fifty residents served by the pipe faced a night without tap water while the mains pipe was shut but were given bottles of drinking water by Anglian Water.

The ground underneath the road's hard surface was completely washed away by the flood and the road was closed to allow workman to carry out repairs throughout the night. One side of the road was still impassable the next day.

Mum-of-two Denise Keeling, of Kenworth Road, said: "I have to cross here to pick my child up from school up the road. It is ridiculous - this keeps happening and they don't seem to do a single thing about it."

A spokesman for Anglian Water said: "We are sorry for the inconvenience but these things happen due to wear and tear and especially at this time of year."

Anglian Water managed to get the water supply back on for residents during the early hours of yesterday morning.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.