NEARLY one hundred thousand homes and businesses across the region were left without power due to a fault on the National Grid.

In North Yorkshire, the police headquarters was evacuated and eight people had to be rescued from a lift in Middlesbrough when two power stations went off the National Grid at around 11.30 yesterday morning.

An automatic response meant that that parts of the region were disconnected from their supply until the problem was fixed.

The cuts caused disruption as firefighters were called out to attend automatic fire alarms.

In Durham, the fire brigade was called out to two incidents of automatic fire alarms and fire fighters in Cleveland attended seven which were triggered by the power cut.

The Cleveland fire brigade also had to attend two lift rescues, as lifts stopped mid action.

In one, there was no one inside, however, eight people were rescued from the broken down lift at Whinney Banks Library in Middlesbrough.

Approximately 500 police officers and staff were evacuated when the power cut triggered a fire alarm system at North Yorkshire Police's base, at Newby Wiske Hall, near Northallerton.

- Read the full story in tomorrow's Northern Echo.