THOUSANDS of homes and businesses in Worcester lost power this morning.

Central Networks said the power cut, which affected homes and businesses across the city at about 11am, occured because of a fault at one of the region's main electricity sub-stations.

A spokesman said: "The fault appears to have happened in a primary sub-station meaning it probably would have affected thousands of people."

After five minutes power had returned for many of the homes.However, some of the city centre businesses were still affected hours later with Boots, Woolworth, Barclays Bank and the O2 mobile phone shop amongst those forced to close their doors.

Meanwhile, more than 300 homes in Hereford and Peterchurch were also without power this morning after overhead cables were ripped down during last night's bad weather.

Central Networks said teams were working to repair the fault as quickly as possible.