Hundreds of people across mid Essex were left without electricity after lightning struck power supplies.

The powerful storm hit in the early hours of Saturday morning, and caused a number of power cuts across the Braintree area.

Between 200 and 250 households in Silver End lost their electricity and a further 100 properties in Bocking, High Garrett and Panfield were also left without power.

Iris and Adrian Weatherley, of Francis Court, Silver End, were among those hit.

Mrs Weatherley, 36, said she heard the storm at around 3.30am and found the electricity had been cut off. She rang Eastern Electricity's emergency number straight away. A recorded message told her the fault was being dealt with.

However when she got up later that morning to begin preparations for her son's christening she found the power was still off. Her husband Adrian, 36, rang again and spoke to an operator who said it had not been reported until 7.45am.

Mrs Weatherley, whose six-month-old son Thomas was due to be christened yesterday , said: "It was not the fact the power had gone off but they said they knew about it and it was being dealt with that annoyed me.

"With the christening on Sunday we had a freezer full of food and we wanted to give the house a good clean before our friends arrived, but we couldn't do that because we had no electricity."

NIck Brewster, Eastern Electricity fault manager, said the Silver End problem was caused when a transformer failed due to a lightning strike.

He apologised for inconvenience caused to the Weatherley's and added: "We're not in the business of giving poor customer care and if that has happened this time we apologise."

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