Hundreds of homes were affected by power cuts in Rochester and Chatham this morning.

UK Power Networks say more than 400 homes in and around St Margaret's Street and Maidstone Road in Rochester were left without power at around 9am.

The fault lasted only five minutes but residents in the area say it is the second interruption following a power cut that lasted several hours earlier in the week.

A statement from UK Power Networks said: "Our engineers worked as quickly and as safely as possible to restore electricity to 428 in Rochester, which were affected by a power cut just before 9am this morning (Saturday).

"All customers had power restored by 9.05am. The cause was a fault on an underground cable. We realise how difficult it can be to be without power and apologise for any inconvenience caused."

St Margaret's Street resident James Asquith said: "I suppose on this occasion it was off for just 10 minutes, but given that the UK since the post-war years has had an impeccable record of uninterrupted power supply - notwithstanding natural disasters - I am wondering whether what we have seen this week is evidence of a more serious underlying problem."

In Chatham around 12 residents in the Luton area without power as engineers work to fix a faulty piece of underground network equipment.