MORE than 500 people have been affected by a powercut in Hampshire.

Residents and businesses in the Rownhams area were left without power for an hour following the cut which happened at 1.15pm today.

It was caused by damage to an underground cable that was in the back area of Rownhams services - which has also been affected by the powercut.

Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) say power has been restored to 500 customers, but Rownhams is still affected by the fault, an emergency generator will be installed at 5pm, while engineers work to restore power.

A spokesperson for SSE, said: “We would like to apologise to all of our customers affected by this and to reassure them that we did everyone possible to get the power back on as quickly and as safely as possible.”