Thousands of people were left without power, and train services delayed on Wednesday after freak thunder storms wreaked havoc across East Lancashire.

The worst of the disruptions were felt in Hyndburn as electricty outages were experienced in Great Harwood after lightning strikes affected overhead power lines, sending the network into chaos.

Earlier on Wednesday a spokesperson for Electricity North West said: "We have been experiencing higher volume of power cuts today due to the thunder and lightning affecting our overhead power lines.

"We understand that Great Harwood is particularly affected by these and we have a large number of resources dispatched to restore power.

"We are aware that many other customers are without power due to localised flooding and lightning strikes.

"We have teams out working to get you back on.

"We are also experiencing system issues so do not have access to live powercut information.

"We are so sorry about this." 

At around 2.27pm, more than 1,000 people in Clitheroe were also left without power due to the freak weather.

An Electricty North West spokesperson said: "We are aware of a powercut in Clitheroe currently affecting 1,810 customers.

"Our engineers are on the way to site and our estimated time of restoration is 5.04pm.

"If you or anyone in your property requires any additional assistance contact us on 105."

In other parts of Hyndburn, train services were severely disrupted between Church, Oswaldtwistle and Accrington due to lightning affecting the signalling systems.

A spokesperson for Northern said: "Due to lightning damaging the signalling system between Church and Oswaldtwistle and Accrington, trains are running at a reduced speed.

"Services may be delayed by up to 10 minutes, disruption is expected until the end of the day."

It was estimated that power would be returned to normal for all affected by the end of Wednesday, with train services resuming as normal today (Thursday).