Thunderstorm hit power supply

AROUND 6,500 customers in the north of Shetland lost their power for a while on Sunday morning when a lightening strike hit the isles’ electricity supply at 5.50am.

A spokeswoman for Scottish & Southern Energy said that the majority of those affected were re-connected within a minute, while around 1,000 customers had to wait for around 12 minutes to have the power back on again.

However, an hour later 620 customers lost their power again due to a burnt pole near Voe.

She said the second powercut occurred because the pole had been hit by the initial thunder storm.

Most households were back on during Sunday morning, but six customers were still without power this afternoon.

The SSE spokeswoman apologised for any inconvenience caused and gave a reassurance that everybody should be re-connected by 5pm on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Sunday morning’s thunderstorm knocked out telephones, broadband routers and other IT equipment.