More than 500 customers were left without power due to a network fault in Maidstone today.

Businesses and homes in and around the Mote Road area of the town were experiencing an outage due to a fault on the electricity distribution network.

UK Power Networks said at 11.44am today the issue interrupted supplies to 517 customers.

Buildings in Romney Place and Lower Stone Street, including Romney Court and Cycles UK were left without power for a short period of time.

Sainsbury's was also forced to close for around half an hour, but has now reopened.

UK Power Networks engineers were sent to fix the fault and supplies were restored by 1pm.

A spokesman apologised to customers for any inconvenience.

Kent Fire and Rescue Service (KFRS) and Kent County Council's (KCC) phone lines were down for most of Tuesday afternoon.

It came after the council's headquarters were evacuated the same morning.

KCC said the authority had to call KFRS to an issue in one of the server rooms but it could not confirm if it related to the power cut.

KFRS service tweeted: "We are currently unable to make or receive phone calls due to a technical fault. 999 emergency calls are not affected. Updates to follow."

Both phone lines were up and running by Wednesday morning.