A power cut affected thousands of people in central Sutton this morning.

The power cut was caused by problems in underground electricity cables at Sutton Station.

It is understood three small explosions occurred in the cables which were heard as loud bangs.

It caused damage to the pavement.

A spokesman for Southern trains said the problem was in cables under the pavement outside the station.

Firefighters arrived at the scene along with UK Power Networks engineers and part of the station has been cordoned off while work is carried out to fix the problem.

Power is out in Quadrant House, and at Sutton station, but trains are still running.

Sutton civic offices and Morrisons supermarket in Sutton High Street also said they were without power.

Other shops, including Waterstones and Dorothy Perkins, have said they have experienced a power cut but power has already been restored.

The power cut has caused major problems at Sutton Station, where screens have lost power, meaning station staff are having to announce train destinations  themselves.

Some power is being provided in Quadrant House by emergency generators.

Some staff in the building were stuck in lifts for about 20 minutes when the power cut occurred.

A spokesman for Uk Power Networks said: "At 9.12am today (April 25), 435 customers in The Quadrant area of Sutton experienced an interruption to their power supplies because of a fault on the high-voltage underground electricity distribution network."

"UK Power Networks engineers are working as quickly and as safely as possible to ensure power is restored soon.

We appreciate how difficult it can be to lose power and would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused by this incident."

He said at 10.07am, 14 customers had supplies restored and at 10.11am, a further 332 had supplies restored.

Work is continuing to get power to the remaining 89 customers.