A TREE brought down an overhead cable, causing a power cut to residents on the outskirts of Darlington.

About 280 customers in Croft and Dalton-on-Tees lost their power supply at just before 7.10pm this evening.

Engineers have been working on the problem and expect to restore power to all but 13 customers by about 9.10pm. Power should be restored to everyone by 10.15pm.

A spokeswoman for Northern Electric said: "We apologise to our customers for the inconvenience caused."