"A lot of work" is required from engineers to fix a power cut which left more than 600 homes without electricity.

UK Power Networks said it was made aware of the issue, affecting some of those living in villages just south of Poringland, sandwiched between the A140 and A146, at 12.28pm on Friday.

Temporary generators have been put in place after an underground cable fault knocked out the power supply to 619 homes in that area.

It was initially hoped that the problem would be fixed by 4.30pm, but UK Power Networks warned the scale of the work needed to fix the problem means it "may need to extend this".

A statement said: "We’re sorry for any disruption this may have caused you. Our teams will do everything they can to get your power back quickly.

"Our engineers have investigated and found that the power is off due to a fault on our underground cabling network. As there's a lot of work required on-site, so we have decided to use temporary generators to provide power."

Those engineers are in the area working to restore power to all the homes affected and had hoped to complete their work by 7.30pm.

But further setbacks saw that time pushed back to 9.45pm.