Several thousand homes across Shepway and Park Wood in Maidstone have had their power cut off this afternoon while urgent repairs are made to a substation.

EDF Energy says the work must be carried out after a fault at two substations in the Shepway area of Maidstone.

The first fault occurred shortly before 5am and the second just after 6am, resulting in powercuts in the town.

The power is expected to be switched on again by 5pm.

A statement from EDF said: "We have spent the morning working on our network to reduce the likely number of customers affected by this incident and, where possible, to ensure vital services can receive power via alternative circuits. We believe this will be the warmest part of the day and a time likely to cause as little disruption as possible.

"This is an unusual set of circumstances and we would not be interrupting power supplies to customers if this urgent work could be carried out in any other way.

"We do understand how much inconvenience any interruption to power can cause and are sorry for the disruption this incident is causing."

Kent Police said its communications centre, in Sutton Road, was not affected by the power cut.

For more information call EDF's power cut helpline on 0800 783 8866.