A BURST water pipe at a dental surgery caused the ceiling to cave in and has left the building looking like a bombsite, according to staff.

Burnham Dental Practice has been forced to close its doors this week after water from the broken pipe flooded the building and caused the ground floor ceiling to collapse.

Staff at the surgery say the huge amount of damage at the surgery was caused after a water pipe froze, because of the cold weather, and then burst.

But they say they are hoping to be able to offer services to patients again on Friday.

Anila Patel, who is a consultant at the practice on High Street, Burnham, said the damage had left staff shocked.

She said: “We were closed over the weekend so the first we heard about it was on Facebook on Monday.

“There was massive flooding in the flat on the top floor and we’ve lost all of our electrics - all of our computers are broken - and the flooring has to come out.

“I was absolutely shocked when I saw it, the best way to describe it is that it looked like a bomb had dropped through the ceiling.

“It’s really upsetting because we only had the surgery completely revamped and refitted two years ago - all of the hard work that went in has been completely wasted.”

Anila explained that patients in pain who had appointments at the surgery this week have been able to visit another practice nearby.

She said: “The safety of our patients is paramount to us and we don’t want to re-open until we can guarantee that.

“I’d like to thank our patients for being so brilliant as well as all the members of the community and Maldon Council who have been helping us to get back up and running.”