'Scary' explosion cut power to 1,400 properties

Power has now been restored

An "extremely scary" electrical explosion cut the power to more than 1,400 homes and businesses, causing computers to blackout for hours.

Dorset and Wiltshire Fire Service attended Marlborough high street, Wiltshire, earlier after businessowners described seeing a "large puff of brown smoke" emerge from the ground.

Some locals suspect utility company Gigaclear cut through an electricity cable, which caused the explosion. Power has now been restored.

Gigaclear told the BBC it is aware of the incident and is investigating.

Contractors at the site told BBC Radio Wiltshire an electrical cable should have been 80 centimetres (cm) buried into the ground - but was only 20cm.

They added it was "extremely scary and very alarming".

Some businesses experienced computers shutting down while others were out of power for three hours.

Contractors showed the BBC the explosion site

Angus MacLennan from White Horse bookshop saw the explosion.

He said: "Looking down the high street everyone had been carrying on their business without too much running around, no one was flying through the air."

A Gigaclear spokesman said: "We are aware of an incident in Marlborough that resulted in a power outage in the high street.

"An investigation is currently taking place to understand how the incident occurred."