Lightning cut power throughout isles

HUGE parts of Shetland have been hit by power cuts over the weekend caused by rolling thunder and lightning that swept up the isles on Friday night.

Scottish and Southern Energy said the “vast majority” of outages were “of a very short nature”.

However in some areas, such as Vidlin, where lightning scored a direct hit on power network there were power cuts lasting 18 hours or more.

The areas that suffered the worst were Skerries, Whalsay, Vidlin, Voe, Brae, Gott, Tingwall, Weisdale and Girlsta.

Power went off late on Friday night and in some areas did not return until Saturday afternoon, only to go off again until midnight on Saturday.

An SSE spokeswoman said: “Engineers had to carry out significant repairs to the network in these areas due to lightning damage.

“They changed a number of transformers and insulators that had been damaged by direct hits.

“We apologise to our customers who experienced interruptions.”