Hundreds of Wigan college pupils sent home after power cut

Winstanley College in Orrell shut after the power outage at 10.48am today (March 16) which has hit 2,777 properties.

Electricity North West (ENW) said the outage was caused by a fault with an underground cable.

One Student, Jacob, 16, said: "We were in the middle of class when all of a sudden the power went down and we were told to go home. It's the first time I've ever been sent home due to a power outage."

A spokesman for ENW said engineers are working to fix the fault and restore power to customers.

They said: “We received reports of a power cut in Orrell at 10:48am affecting 2,777 properties due to a fault with an underground electricity cable.

“We responded immediately and were able to restore power to 2,000 properties within a few minutes and a further 300 properties at 11:08am by our automated restoration system.

“Our engineers are now on site and will aim to restore power to all customers as quick as possible.

“If anyone needs any more information during a power cut, they can follow Electricity North West on Twitter or Facebook for updates, or call us free on 105.”