Sixth form pupils evacuated as 2,700 properties hit by large power cut

Pupils at a sixth form college have been evacuated due to a power cut.

Winstanley College in Wigan was forced to shut on Monday morning following the outage, which affected thousands of homes and businesses in the area.

The power cut was believed to have been caused by a fault with an underground electricity cable.

Electricity has been restored to the majority of properties, but ten remain without power as of 3pm.

The college tweeted the following statement: "Thank you to students, bus companies and parents for responding so quickly and helpfully to the power cut this morning. So sorry we had to evacuate the site but looking forward to seeing everyone again tomorrow #keepcalmandcarryon "

The college, which is in the Orrell area of Wigan, has about 1,700 pupils and was rated 'good' by Ofsted inspectors last month.

A spokesperson for Electricity North West said: “We received reports of a power cut in Orrell at 10:48am affecting 2,777 properties due to a fault with an underground electricity cable.

“We responded immediately and were able to restore power to 2,000 properties within a few minutes and a further 300 properties at 11:08am by our automated restoration system.

“Our engineers are now on site and will aim to restore power to all customers as quick as possible.

“If anyone needs any more information during a power cut, they can follow Electricity North West on Twitter or Facebook for updates, or call us free on 105.”