Residents in a Tiptree road had a narrow escape from their homes flooding after a water main burst.

Water started to pour out of the ground in Grange Road at about 11am on Friday and villagers alerted police to the situation.

A spokesman for Stanway Traffic Police said there was a large amount of water flowing across the road by the time police arrived on the scene and tried to divert it away from homes.

Kerry O'Brien, of Anglian Water which supplies the road, said a manager had headed straight to the scene as soon as he was alerted to the problem. Engineers set to work on the burst main as soon as was possible.

"Unfortunately it was one of the bigger ones and it was quite nasty because it is on a corner."

Miss O'Brien said they had set about turning water off and moves were made to get a temporary road closure until work had been finished.

"We do apologise for any inconvenience which was caused," she added.

Published Monday, April 8, 2002