Hundreds of homes in central and eastern parishes are without power tonight as strong winds battered the island.

According to electricity supplier Belco, Hamilton Parish was the biggest casualty of the wintry weather, with almost 700 homes suffering a blackout.

The Belco outage map also showed that 607 properties in Smith’s were without power, along with 297 homes in Devonshire.

In total, 1,689 Belco customers were without electricity as of 9.30pm tonight.

A Belco spokesman was unable to provide an official comment but it is understood that the outages were caused by gale-force winds, which have downed many power lines.

The island has been hit by winter storms in the past week. According to the Bermuda Weather Service, gale-force winds will continue to batter the island throughout this week.

Tonight, winds were expected to reach 40 knots, with gusts up to 55 knots.

The BWS website said: “Gales continue tonight to Friday afternoon as troughing exits the area, leaving a few showers and the chance for small hail.

“Strong to gale-force west-northwest winds ease moderate as it backs to the west Saturday morning.

“Later Saturday and into early Sunday, a deepening low to the north introduces widespread rain and showers along with developing gales.

“Rough to very rough seas ease moderate to rough for a time on Saturday.”