TRADE worth hundreds of thousands of pounds was lost and hundreds of shoppers were evacuated after a massive York city centre power cut.

The cut, which Northern Electric said was believed to have been caused by a contractor damaging a cable, hit streets including Coney Street, Davygate and Stonegate.

Northern Electric declined to say who the contractor was.

Chairman of York Chamber of Trade, Adam Sinclair, of Mulberry Hall, in Stonegate, said the cut would hit York's trading figures hard. He said: "We have lost thousands. "Across the city centre the total will run into hundreds of thousands. The current climate is difficult enough for trading so this was the last thing we needed."

Mr Sinclair said compensation would be looked into, but getting stores up and running again was the priority.

Robert Stabler, store director at Browns, in Davygate, put lost trade at about £3,500.

The store was closed for about an hour because of yesterday's power cut, which happened just after 3.10pm.

Power was restored just after 4pm. He said: "We had to evacuate the store for health and safety reasons, there was no lighting. We had no escalators or lifts.

"It is a bit annoying, but it is just one of those things and you have to get on with it.

"I have been here 48 years so I can remember Mr (Ted) Heath's time when the lights were always going off."

Robert Gardener, team manager at Boots, in Coney Street, said the store had been able to give out pre-dispensed prescriptions but was not able to trade.

He said: "The loss will be in the thousands. We got the power back but not the computers, so we had to stay closed."

Updated: 10:37 Saturday, March 29, 2003