MORE than half of a County Durham town suffered an electricity blackout yesterday after a power cut.

More than 4,000 homes and businesses in Consett and Delves Lane were affected, some of them for up to four hours.

The supply was cut at about 12.45pm when overhead conductors in the area were grounded.

Nedl, previously known asNorthern Electric, was investigating the cause yesterday.

Most of the properties affected had electricity again by 2.15pm, but others had to wait. Most of the Moorside area of town was without electricity, but the Blackhill side of town was not affected

Supermarket Tesco was forced to close for health and safety reasons, along with a number of other smaller shops. The Safeway supermarket used its emergency generator to stay open.

A spokesman for Tesco said: "We had to close for safety reasons.

"We are sorry for any trouble caused to our customers."

One shopper, who declined to be named, contacted the Consett and Stanley Advertiser during the blackout.

He said: "This must have cost thousands of pounds to our local businesses.

"One side of Front Street was entirely without electricity.

"We even heard that some shop assistants were using torches to show people around."

A spokesman for Nedl said: "We would like to apologise to all our customers for any inconvenience caused.

"We are investigating the whole episode."