Areas of Hitchin and its surrounding villages are currently being affected by a power cut.

People living in SG5 2 postcodes are those known to be without power, which covers the west side of Hitchin, including the hamlet of Charlton, Westmill and northern roads leading to Ickleford.

The outage was first reported at 8.18am today (July 13), with UK Power Networks without any prior warning of a disruption to services.

Specialist engineers are on site investigating the cause of the fault so they can carry out repairs.

Power is set to be restored to affected areas between 2.30pm and 3.30pm today.

In an update just before 11.30am, a UK Power Networks representative said: "Our specialist engineers are on the way to locate, excavate and repair the fault on the underground network. To give them time to do this safely, the estimated timeframe to restore your power is now between 14:30 and 15:30.

"We're sorry this is taking longer than expected," adding that residents will be kept up to date with information as it comes in.

Update: More Hitchin homes affected by power outage