Thousands of people were affected by three major power outages in Christchurch on Wednesday morning.

Traffic lights were also not working following the fault with SSE's network.

A spokesperson for SSE said: "Our engineers were alerted to three separate faults affecting the high voltage network in Christchurch and surrounding areas this morning.

"The first, affecting 2,386 customers is ongoing. Our engineers are on site and are estimating to restore power to our customers by 1pm this afternoon.

"We were alerted to a fault at 06.19am affecting 2,691 customers in the area. Our engineers restored power to these properties at 8.25am this morning.

"The third fault was reported to us at 7.01am, affecting 1,200 properties. Power was restored to all of those affected by 7.49am.

"Our engineers are investigating the cause of these three faults affecting the Christchurch area, with our main priority to restore power to our customers as quickly as we possibly can."

Traffic lights at Blackwater, Barrack Road and Stour Road were affected.

Parley Road crossroads lights are back working.