Jellyfish shut down Marchwood Power Station

Residents reported hearing a "loud whistling" noise from Marchwood Power Station during the event

A power station was forced to shut down temporarily after its systems were blocked by a "bloom of jellyfish".

Marchwood Power Station, near Southampton, had to cease operations at 04:05 BST on Monday.

General manager Alan Ainsworth described it as an event "outside of our control" which had "never occurred in the site's history".

Marchwood councillor Richard Young said nearby residents reported hearing a "loud whistling" noise from the site.

A bloom of jellyfish entered the cooling water intakes at the site

Mr Ainsworth said the noise was caused by the station venting steam to relieve pressure in the system.

He added: "The event was caused by the site's cooling water systems becoming blocked.

"This was due to a bloom of jellyfish entering the cooling water intakes."

He said he anticipated it "being a one-off event, although monitoring will continue".

Jellyfish are increasingly causing issues for power plants around the world by clogging up pipes.

Last year, thousands of jellyfish blocked the cooling systems at an Israeli power plant.

In 2013, a swarm of jellyfish disrupted operations at one of the world's largest nuclear reactors in Sweden.