IPSWICH: Power has been restored to the remaining pubs, homes and businesses today affected by a lengthy power cut which plunged Ipswich town centre into darkness.

The blackout happened just before 11.30pm wiping out power to a number of buildings in the Queen Street area of the town.

In total 674 customers were affected, but around half had their power restored within minutes, according to a spokeswoman for EDF Energy.

The final customers affected had their power restored by around 10am this morning.

She said: “EDF Energy Networks engineers restored power supplies to all but ten customers by 12.40am this morning.

“The final few supplies were restored at 10am and we apologise to those still without power for the inconvenience this has caused.”

Revellers were asked to leave bars and pubs after venues were plunged into darkness for several minutes.

One reveller said: “We were in The Swan pub and all the lights went off. They said we had to leave for health and safety reasons.

“All the lights seemed to be off in the town centre – the pubs and bars lights all seemed to be out – and there were loads of alarms going off.

“Lots of people had come out of the pubs were all walking along the streets with nowhere to go. It was really strange.”

The spokeswoman for EDF Energy added: “Power was interrupted to 674 customers in the Queen Street area of Ipswich at 11.24pm after a fault on the electricity distribution network.

“EDF Energy Networks engineers were able to restore supplies to 334 customers within a few minutes. Power was restored to a further 227 customers at 12.15am and we are working to reconnect the final 113 customer supplies as quickly as possible.

“The interruption was caused by a fault on an underground cable.

“We can appreciate the impact on residents and businesses and we apologise for the inconvenience this has caused.”

The blackout comes just two days after an unexplained power cut hit areas surrounding Norwich Road, Bramford Road and Sproughton Road.