Westminster Magistrates’ Court is closed and homes in Marylebone evacuated a burst water main flooded a nearby central London street.
Footage posted online shows the moment thousands of gallons of water spilled pout leaving roads completely submerged.
Eight fire engines and around 60 firefighters have been dealing with flooding across the area around Enford Street, the London Fire Brigade said.
Manchester Arena bomb plotter Hashem Abedi was among those due to appear at one of Britain’s busiest court in neighbouring Marylebone Road on Thursday.
Cases are postponed as lawyers and other court users stood around outside waiting for updates from staff.
One local told how their windows had been smashed and they had been forced to “swim out” of their basement room.
Burst pipe on Enford Street London at 5:20am this morning - all basement flats flooded and submerged - water pressure broke all windows. I had to swim out of my basement room and all possessions are gone. All residents evacuated by emergency services. @thameswater@BBCBreaking pic.twitter.com/KIGolgKCea
— Jay Bansal (@JayBansal99) September 25, 2025
Writing on X, formerly Twitter, they said: “Burst pipe on Enford Street London at 5.20am this morning.
“All basement flats flooded and submerged - water pressure broke all windows.
“I had to swim out of my basement room and all possessions are gone. All residents evacuated by emergency services.”
Aziz Ali, 49, who has run a restaurant in the area for the past seven years, said he arrived in the morning to find it has been flooded.
He told the Standard: “So basically first thing the flood came to the basement and then it came to the ground floor and it was so flooded that like it was like you are in the middle of the ocean, like something that you cannot control, it's really horrible.”
He added: “I’m very shocked, honestly, really shocked because it's like it's like a war zone basically when somebody evacuate his home and he don't know where to go.”
He was yet to know the full extent of damage his business had suffered.
Resident Lachlan Dinham told the BBC he and his partner woke up at about 5am to water coming out of their electric plug sockets.
"Within about half an hour, basically our whole kitchen was submerged," he told the broadcaster.
"We grabbed everything we could - passports; we're recently engaged so we got the ring - and made our way out.
"The bricks actually started to pop out of the wall, we thought the building was going to start falling to pieces, but we made it out safely."
The burst 9cm water main has caused flooding across an area of around 200m by 100m, affecting multiple basement flats on Enford Street and York Street.
Approximately 14 residents from ground floor and basement properties have been evacuated as a precaution.
It is feared their homes could have suffered have extensive damage.
Westminster deals with some of the most serious cases including terror and extradition, and is where the chief magistrate sits.
Court staff said there was no water in the building and that it was a public health risk.
LFB station commander Brien O’Keeffe said: “Crews are working hard to assist partner agencies to resolve the incident as quickly as possible in a safe manner and are continuing to support local businesses and the community.
“Members of the public are advised to avoid the local area whilst the incident is being resolved.
“Traffic restrictions are in place on Marylebone Road, Seymour Place, Crawford Street and Gloucester Place.”
The LFB received 15 calls to the incident at 05.20am and sent crews from Paddington, Euston, Soho, Chelsea, Kentish Town and surrounding fire stations.
Thames Water said: “We are sorry to those who have been impacted by a burst pipe on Enford Street.
“We were first notified of the burst at 5.30am and our teams are currently working to repair this as quickly as they can.
“A specialist team of customer representatives and loss adjusters will be on site shortly to help customers affected by this issue.”
