MORE than 3,000 homes across Lancashire were still without electricity yesterday after storms hit the county four days ago.

United Utility chiefs said engineers had been working around the clock to restore power to the affected areas and they were expecting electricity to be back on by 11pm yesterday.

Homes in Belmont, near Darwen, were some of the worst affected. Louise Wylie, of United Utilities, said: "65,000 customers were affected by the loss of power, however by Friday this was down to 3,000.

"Engineers had to fix the main lines before fixing small lines and therefore rural and isolated properties were the last ones affected."

She added: "We sympathise with our customers who have been waiting for power to be restored but it was a huge storm which severely affected the country."