A FAULT with an electricity cable has wiped out the power in more than 500 homes in the Lexden and Stanway areas.

UK Power Networks engineers say they are working hard to fix it as quickly as possible.

They said an underground electricity cable has faulted on a high voltage network, causing an area wide power cut.

Stanway School said on its Facebook page it has made the decision to close. 

The school said: "We have had to make a decision to close The Stanway School today due to having no power or water.

"Please contact your child to arrange how they could get home. We are contacting the bus companies if students require a bus to go home."

Approximately 557 homes have been affected.

The power cut was reported at 9.20am and is estimated to be fixed between 11am and noon.

Residents said earlier this morning about 1,000 homes had been affected. 

UPDATE 10.43AM: UK Power Networks is continuing to divert power around the fault. There are now 266 homes still affected.

UPDATE 11AM from UK Power Networks: "We can now confirm that all power in the area should be back on. The issue affected 1065 customers and was caused by a fault on an underground cable in the Stanway area, which our engineers diverted power around. We're really sorry for any disruption this caused."