HUNDREDS of people in Newton Abbot were without electricity for more than an hour this afternoon (Monday).

The Mid-Devon Advertiser was one of several businesses caught on the hop by a sudden loss of power early on Monday afternoon.

The cuts were scheduled for just half-an-hour in the early morning and late evening to fix a broken cable in Bradley Lane. But some customers were knocked out of action for 70 minutes in the middle of the working day.

Western Power revealed its planned switch-off went haywire with the effects of Storm Imogen knocking the timetable out of kilter.

Matters were not helped when a back-up generator to feed the local network in the Wolborough Street area of town went phut.

The two brief switch-off sessions were needed to fix a cable which contractors had accidentally cut through.

A spokesman for Western Power explained: ‘The cable cut caused a massive fault in the system which we had to fix. Unfortunately our generator for the local network failed.’

Power was restored at 3.40pm after the initial hiccup at 2.30pm.