Storm hits power supplies

A storm working its way across Northern Ireland tonight caused power cuts to thousands of homes and businesses.

Northern Ireland Electricity said there had been approximately 450 damaging lightning strikes to the electricity network.

Thousands of customers, mainly in the south of the border, had been left without power.

NIE spokesman Robin Greer said engineers were responding to the faults and would restore power as quickly as possible.

More than 12,000 who had suffered power cuts had already been reconnected, he said.

But with the storm set to continue “further damage is likely”, he said, with northern and eastern parts of the province set to take the brunt.

“We have put our escalation plans into action with approximately 350 engineers, linesmen, field staff and call handlers working to restore supplies and keep customers informed,” added Mr Greer.