Supermarket giant Tesco has apologised after workmen refurbishing one of its new Norwich stores accidentally burst a water main.

Hundreds of homes in Drayton and Taverham were left without water for three hours after the accident happened at 9.30am yesterday.

Anglian Water had a sudden influx of around 80 calls and scrambled engineers to the former Budgens store in Fakenham Road, which is being turned into a Tesco, to stop water gushing down the busy road.

The majority of the water flowed downhill towards Drayton and started forming on the School Road junction, outside The Red Lion pub.

Fortunately, engineers managed to stem the flow of water before it rose high enough to cause damage or problems at the Red Lion, or the Esso petrol station on the other side of Fakenham Road.

The gushing water caused some traffic congestion in the area, but Fakenham Road did not need to be closed because of the leak.

An Anglian Water spokesman said: 'We got an awful lot of calls very quickly, about 80 calls within minutes of it happening, mainly because it has taken quite a lot of people off water.

'We are thinking it's several hundred properties without water or with low water flow, for which we obviously apologise.'

Ghost Hill Infant School and Nursery did have to shut because of the problems however, as it had no water supply but Taverham High School was unaffected and was open as normal.

A Tesco spokesman said: 'We would like to apologise for any disruption caused. Our experienced team reacted immediately and worked with the water board to address the issue.

'We are now looking forward to completing the refurbishment works and opening the store to customers in October.'

- Did the burst water main cause you a major problem? Contact David Freezer on 01603 772418 or david.freezer@archant.co.uk