A HAPLESS contractor dug into some power cables this afternoon, causing a power cut to more than 1,300 homes and business in Didcot.

The Orchard Centre, including Sainsbury's, was forced to close during its lunchtime rush as it waited for power to be restored.

A spokesman for Sainsbury's said: "We closed for an hour although the power cut was only for about 10 to 20 minutes.

"We had to make sure that all our products were safe for our customers before they came back into the store."

It was reported that the power cut happened at about 11.50am when cables along Queensway were accidentally dug up.

Power was reportedly restored to the centre at 12.40.

Dean Inward, operations manager at the Orchard Centre, said that for "health and safety reasons" employees evacuated customers out of the shops.

He said: "The shops did close but we're all back up and running now.

"We hope it did not cause too much inconvenience to our shoppers."

But there was one business which was booming during the power cut. 

Amelia Jaquest, who works at No Two Things in the Broadway, said the shop had seen a surge of customers during the power cut.

She said: "We've had lots of families come in because they could not go to the shops - our pottery room is full upstairs.

"This has had a positive impact on us as we run craft activities and we've just had lots of people coming through our door at the time of the cut."

Matthew Pittam, a spokesman for SSE, said the fault to the network happened at 11.54am and affected supplies to 1,347 properties. 

He said: "Our engineers have already restored power to all but 298 customers and these customers will have their power restored by generator while our engineers work hard to repair the fault.

"They should be reconnected by 6.30pm.

"We would like to thank our customers for their patience while our engineers restore their power."

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