A PRIMARY school had to close after a water pipe in a road burst yesterday.

St John’s CE Primary School in Cliviger sent its 190 pupils home after a leak was reported to United Utilities (UU) in Burnley Road, at 8.15am.

A UU spokesman said a burst water pipe had affected 10 properties in total in the road and the water was set to return at around 3.30pm.

A school spokesman said: “We can confirm we had to close the school and send children home because of a lack of water.”

The UU spokesman said: “A leak on Burnley Road affecting customers in BB10, has been spotted and reported to us.

“We have an engineer at the site fixing the burst water pipe.

“We will have this fixed as soon as possible and we’re sorry for any inconvenience caused.

“A ‘water on wheels’ machine was sent to the school as we class schools as high priority customers.

“The school was given water through the water on wheels machine.”