MORE than 400 Hapton homes were left in darkness for up to almost seven hours in a power cut caused by a faulty cable.

A United Utilities spokesman yesterday said the fault occurred at around 5.35pm on Saturday and was completely fixed by 11.55pm.

As a result of the cable fault 427 homes in Hapton and some in Accrington were left without power, he said.

And by just after 6pm, the power supply had been reconnected to 353 of the affected homes.

The final reconnection took place just before midnight.

United Utilities staff responded to the power cut by temporarily reconfiguring the network.

According to a spokesman, engineers will carry out the final repairs next week.

He said: “We would like to apologise to our customers for any inconvenience caused.

“We responded to the issue quickly and sorted it out as fast as we could.”