PART of Blackburn town centre was left without power for more than an hour on Saturday afternoon.

Repairs crews from United Utilities blamed the blackout on an overload to the electricity power supply caused by abnormal demands.

Blakey Moor, Higher Church Street and parts of King Street and King William Street were all affected by the shutdown, which occurred at around 1pm.

John Vaughan, who runs the Blackburn Record Exchange, was one of the traders involved. He said: "The power was off for about an hour.

"We remained open but had to warn shoppers coming into the shop about the power cut. Children were not allowed in."

United Utilities staff returned to Blackburn yesterday to try and rectify the problem.

The power cut meant extra work for alarm and security companies.

They had to deal with dozens of alarms triggered by the emergency.

Mr Vaughan added: "The men from the electricity service said the problem was due to an overload caused by people having their timers set at similar times.

"It is ironic that it happened on the day the weather got slightly warmer, but apparently that is what caused the power cut."