HUNDREDS of motorists and shoppers were affected as Newton Abbot’s troubled Penn Inn roundabout suffered a major ‘gas leak’ shutdown. Thousands of pounds worth of business was lost with McDonald’s and Sainsbury’s falling victim to last night’s total shutdown of the infamous traffic jam blackspot. Workmen battled through the night to fix a leaking low pressure gas main caused by a fractured electrical cable in the McDonald’s car park. Staff were still at the site today repairing the gas fault after the area was declared safe by 9pm last night. Dozens of residents in nearby Torquay Road and Keyberry Road were told to stay in their back rooms for the duration of the scare which kicked of in the middle of the Thursday evening rush-hour at 5pm. No one was evacuated. And not a single home lost its power supplies during the drama which involved all the emergency services. A Western Power Distribution spokeswoman said the cause of the damage to the electrical cable was difficult to establish - and she didn’t rule out third party involvement. The epic disruption climaxed a fortnight of misery for motorists and local residents who have endured hours of delays amid prolonged efforts to fix a severed traffic lights cable caused by the ever-present roadworks. A spokeswoman for Western Power Distribution said this afternoon: ‘It would appear that a ruptured electrical cable caused a low pressure gas main to leak.’ The cable was made safe on the night, although repairs to the gas main were continuing today. The spokeswoman stressed that no homes in the area had their power supplies affected by the incident. She added that damage to the cable may have been caused some time ago with recent wet weather exposing the weakness which led to last night’s problems.