SIX houses had to be evacuated after an underground explosion led to a main road in Colne being closed.

An electrical fault in wires under Burnley Road, close to the Asda superstore, caused the explosion, which created a one-foot hole in the road.

Residents today told how they were moved from their homes yesterday tea-time, and the road was closed for several hours.

Darren Shaw, of Burnley Road, said: "I was a bit surprised when I was told what it was. All I heard was a fizzing noise and was upstairs in my house at the time."

Another resident, who asked not to be named, said: "It was all a bit frightening to be honest.

"We didn't know what was going to happen, and when people started talking about explosions, I got very worried indeed."

Electricity and gas supplies to local houses were cut off as a precautionary measure, and the road re-opened to traffic at around 6.30pm.

The Asda store remained open during the incident and electricity was expected to be restored to all homes today.

A spokesman for United Utilities, which operates electricity supplies in the North West, said the explosion was caused by a fault in an electrical wire.

She said: "There are a number of places where we have joint boxes underground and we think there was a fault in one of those which caused the explosion.

"Only 29 properties were affected and our engineers went straight out. Most properties had electricity restored in a few hours but there were still five properties we weren't able to use alternative cables to get back on that evening."

Emergency services were also called to the scene as a precaution.