POWER has now been restored to hundreds of homes following a suspected cable fault in Oxford.

Engineers from Southern Electric were called out to address the problem which left 800 houses without power just after 6am this morning.

By 8am the company said the problem had been limited to 100 homes and as of 10am the remaining homes were reconnected.

Oxford roads hit by the outage include Pusey Street, Wellington Place, St John Street and St Giles.

A spokesman for the energy firm said: “We would like to thank our customers for their patience and apologies for any inconvenience this has caused.”

Banbury Road was reported to be shut between Bevington Road and St Giles for a period because of a fire at an electricity substation in Parks Road, part of which was also shut.

Firefighters were called to the substation in Parks Road at 5.53am. A spokesman said at 8.10am the fire was out and fire crews were just leaving the scene.

Southern Electric said Oxford University’s Engineering and Technology Building was the only building without power after the fire.

Southern Electric Any witnesses to the fire is asked to call our newsdesk on 01865 425500 or email. Anyone with pictures can email them to our Picturedesk.