A FAULTY power cable left thousands of people in Teesdale without electricity yesterday.

Residents in upper Teesdale, County Durham, were left without power for more than five hours while workers battled to fix the fault.

Hundreds of families, however, were left unaffected by the power cut, which ran from Barnard Castle to Middleton-in-Teesdale.

Vince St Wearmouth, 74, of Middleton-in-Teesdale, said the cut had been a complete surprise.

He said: "The power went off at about 2.15pm and we don't have any other means to keep warm or to cook food.

"If we had known then we could have prepared ourselves, but these things happen and we always manage.

"I'm sure plenty of people in the dale will have been affected and got by without too much bother."

Several villages in the dale have suffered from power cuts in the past few weeks, but the majority have been for short periods.

Villages affected by the power cut yesterday included Romaldkirk, Middleton-in-Teesdale, Mickleton and Staindrop, and parts of Barnard Castle, but most parts of Teesdale only suffered short power cuts.