An MP has demanded answers after businesses in Diss had their power cut off for most of the day - with the whole town centre without electricity for more than an hour.

An MP has demanded answers after businesses in Diss had their power cut off for most of the day - with the whole town centre without electricity for more than an hour.

Richard Bacon, MP for South Norfolk, said the electricity company EDF Energy was “failing” its customers in the area after power went off at 11.12am.

About 2,100 properties in Diss were affected, with all but 136 having power restored 32 minutes later.

But shops and businesses in the town centre remained without electricity until 12.25pm - before twice again losing power for 10-minute periods in the early afternoon.

And EDF Energy reported that a further 400 homes until then unaffected lost electricity as engineers grappled to fix the problem.

Last night a spokesman said that the cause of the fault was still being investigated but engineers on the ground said that the problem was caused by a major power cable being damaged in Dickleburgh, three miles north of Diss.

About 200 customers were still without electricity yesterday evening.

Andrew Thurston, who runs school and office furniture manufacturers Lyndale, said the powercut had cost his business thousands of pounds.

He said: “If our machines shut down in the middle of cutting it is very difficult to get them started up again - and here it's happened twice in a day.

“Most of our workers have gone home - it's pitch black in here, the telephones and franking machine aren't working, it's costing us a fortune and customers aren't going to return.”

Mr Bacon told the EDP: “EDF is failing customers in Diss. This is not the first time that people in the town have been so badly affected by repeated power cuts.”