Businesses in Colchester town centre closed their doors to the public during a power cut.

The half-hour failure yesterday afternoon affected offices, businesses and the traffic lights at the top of North Hill, Head Street and parts of the High Street.

About 20,000 homes in south Colchester, Alresford, Wivenhoe, Brightlingsea, Thorrington and Great Bentley were also affected.

A spokeswoman at the Post Office said: "We really had no alternative but to close. There were no lights, our computers were all down and we cannot operate any security procedures without power."

Although they were only shut for about half an hour a queue of customers had formed outside the doors waiting for the Post Office to reopen.

Other stores affected included Marks and Spencer where tills, escalators and lifts stopped, Boots, Next and Colchester Library.

A spokeswoman for Eastern Electricity said that the same fault was to blame for the power failure in the town and homes south of the centre.

Power went off at 2.25pm and most places were back on line by 2.55pm, with the last at 3.05pm.

"We apologise for the inconvenience caused to everyone during that period," she said.

The failure was most likely to be due to lightning in the area around that time, added the spokeswoman.

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