FLAMES burst from a York street after an underground electrical cable 'exploded' this morning, cutting power to more than 2,000 homes.

Part of Upper Price Street, off Scarcroft Road, has been charred by the incident,which happened earlier this morning, and alarms have been sounding all morning.

York Press:

Initial reports suggested the incident was due to a gas explosion, but Northern Powergrid later confirmed the problem was caused by an underground cable.

A spokeswoman said 2,182 properties were affected by "a fault on our underground cable network" at 8.56am.

She said: "By diverting electricity through alternative routes on our network we restored power to 1,075 customers with four minutes.

"A further 834 customers were restored by 11.22am and the remaining 275 customers affected had their power restored by 12.25pm. We thank our customers for their patience."

Helen Milner, owner of The Farthings guest house in nearby Nunthorpe Avenue, said power to her business had cut out at just before 9am.

She said: "Some guests were leaving and came back and said 'I think you need to call somebody, the street opposite looks like it's exploded and there are flames coming out of it'."

Local residents phoned the emergency services, with North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service and North Yorkshire attending, along with Yorkshire Water and Northern Powergrid. The fire service left the scene at just after 10.30am, but police and electrical engineers remain at the scene.

The explosion burst through the road surface next to a fire hydrant access point in the road, leaving charred tarmac in the street.

The road was cordoned off by police, and City of York Council have just announced the road will remain closed until midnight on Monday, June 26, to allow emergency electricity works to be carried out.

An alternative route for diverted traffic will be signed during the works period, and traffic signs and barriers will be in place.

More to follow.