faulty electric cable caused a power cut.

And the area was reduced to chaos as traffic lights were put out of action and a small fire started in a telegraph pole.

The circuit tripped after a fault in a component in the overhead line at St.

Paul's Lane developed at about 6.45 p.m.

The fault caused a telegraph pole to catch fire and shut down several traffic lights. Fire fighters were able to put out the blaze while Police supervised traffic at busy road junctions. Houses in the Stowe Hill area of the parish then went without power for the next two hours as engineers fought to repair the line.

And in a separate incident residents in the Rosemont Avenue area of Hamilton were without power for an hour yesterday after a cable was accidentally damaged by workers carrying out road works.