Northern Gas Networks, responsible for the supply of gas across North East England, said it had stopped supplies to homes and business in Westoe Village while it dealt with the incident.

The problem was reported at about 3.30pm today and engineers shutdown meters as a precaution bwhen supply levels to the mains mysteriously dropped.

A spokeswoman for United Utilities, which is working with Northern Gas networks to investigate the cause of the problem, apologised for the problems.

"We're sure this was very inconvenient for customers and apologise for that, but this was done as a precaution.

"The supply to the mains has now been rectified and we have a lot of engineers in the area manually switching back on each meter at each affected home.

"Our immediate priority is reconnect supply. We will call at as many homes as possible tonight, starting from the Hutton Road end of the estate, and the properties we don't manage to re-supply tonight we will call at first thing in the morning."

The spokeswoman said an investigation into the cause of the supply problems would be laucnhed tomorrow.

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