MORE than 2,000 homes were left without power for up to eight hours on Tuesday night.

Southern Electric said that underground cable damage was caused by a third party, affecting approximately 2,367 houses in Wimborne, Corfe Mullen and Merley, from 5pm on Tuesday.

A spokesman added that while 98 per cent of homes had their power restored within two hours, a generator was needed to reconnect the substations in Station Road, and all power supplies to the homes affected were restored by 1am.

Terry Burroughs, 66, who lives on the Stour Valley estate, in Wimborne, is one resident who was left without electric until the early hours of yesterday morning.

He said that this is the second power cut they have had in the past two months, after never having had one in the eight years that the estate has been there.

He added: “At 5pm, when the electric went off, people were probably doing their cooking at that time, and it was quite an inconvenience. There’s also a lot of elderly people that live in Wimborne, and I don’t know how they would have coped.”