MORE than 2,000 properties were affected by an early morning power cut.

Householders in Baxenden woke to discover their electricity was off yesterday following an overnight fault in the area.

Electricity North West said 2,205 properties were affected at 5.48am due to an underground cable fault.

Engineers began working in the area shortly afterwards and restored power to 1,300 customers at 7.12am.

The remaining 905 were back on at 8.30am.

Baxenden ward councillor John Hurn was among those affected and said: “When we got up, we realised there was no power so we had to make some calls to establish what had gone on.

“We were up at 7.30am but it was back on by 8am.

“When we spoke with the electricity board, they said there had been power cuts through the night too.”

Landlord of the Alma Inn on Manchester Road, Craig Pilkington, said: “We found the power was off for a couple of hours and there was no hot water and no way to make a hot drink.

“Along Manchester Road there were quite a few alarms going off too.”

It comes a week after power cuts hit thousands in the Blackburn area in one day.

Parts of Blackburn, Great Harwood, Knuzden and Mellor saw the first power cut just before 8am last Tuesday with power restored by 3.30pm.

Later, 20,000 people, including most of Blackburn town centre, were then affected by a second cut at around 6pm.

A spokeswoman for Electricity North West said: “We would like to apologise to customers for the inconvenience and if anyone does experience any issues with their power they can call us on 0800 195 4141 or visit us at www.enwl.co.uk”