UK storms leaves thousands without electricity

Thousands of homes are without power after strong winds and rain hit the south west of England and Wales.

The Met Office said gusts of up to 70mph and 20mm of rain spread from the south west to south-west Wales and eastern Northern Ireland overnight.

Western Power Distribution said about 14,000 homes in south-west England and 1,300 in Wales were hit by power cuts.

Rail services have also been disrupted, with all lines between Exeter St Davids and Penzance closed.

Earlier, the Prince of Wales met residents in the flood-hit Somerset Levels where thousands of hectares of land remain under water and whole villages have been cut off for weeks.

Western Power Distribution said there had been high voltage faults due to debris being blown around in Devon and Cornwall.

 Teams of engineers worked through the night to try and fix the faults, and the company said it would also switch circuits to work around individual faults.

Many customers in west, south and mid Wales were also without power, it added.

Phil Davies, network service manager for the company, said: “The problem we get when we get high winds like this is wind-borne material coming into contact with our overhead lines and causing short-circuits and causing the conductors to fall.”