The rail line between Ipswich, Colchester and London is likely to be closed until 2pm while Network Rail engineers repair overhead wires that have been damaged near Marks Tey.

The damage was noticed by the Network Rail control centre at about 5am - and the driver of the first Greater Anglia train of the day reported that the wires in front of his train were damaged.

About 50 passengers on the train were taken off at about 6am - and the train itself was towed back to Colchester later in the morning.

A spokesman for Network Rail said the cause of the damage was still to be assessed - but the priority was to get the overhead wires repaired and to reopen the track so services could restart at about 2pm.

There would be talks between Greater Anglia and Network Rail because they will need to establish which company was responsible for the damage to the overhead wires for when it came to paying compensation - although passengers will claim from Greater Anglia.

The fact that the driver of the train reported damaged wires in front of the cab could be significant.

There are few trains using that section of track during the early hours of the morning - and there were no Greater Anglia test trains running early today.

A spokeswoman for Greater Anglia said the company hoped to run a fairly normal service by the evening rush hour - but it would take some time for the normal timetable to become operational because staff and trains would not be in the right place if the track was able to be reopened by 2pm.

She said: "Customers are advised to check before they travel either via the Greater Anglia app, website, or Twitter page. Greater Anglia and Network Rail sincerely apologise for the disruption caused."