Thousands of people in Oxfordshire were left without electricity again yesterday as thunderstorms hit the county for the second time in three days.

There was some localised flooding, but the storms were much weaker than on Tuesday, with neighbouring Wiltshire and Gloucestershire harder hit.

The Met Office issued a severe weather warning for the region as heavy showers and thunderstorms struck during mid-afternoon yesterday.

Last night, Southern Electric said 2,000 homes and businesses in the county were without power, while engineers tackled faults.

Spokesman Linda Young said: "We've had some of the worst lightning we have ever seen over our network. At one point, we had 1,500 lightning strikes within a half-hour period, so it has been pretty severe."

An Oxfordshire Fire Service spokesman said they had only been out to a handful of weather-related incidents.

She said: "We haven't been anything like as busy as we were two days ago. We've been out to two or three incidents but nothing out of the ordinary."

On Tuesday, the service received almost 100 calls from householders and businesses affected by flooding and storm damage.