A restaurant owner suffered losses of more than £3,000 after his cellar was flooded when a water pipe burst below St Clement's.

Genie's International Restaurant was one of a number of businesses in the road whose basements flooded yesterday.

Owner Hassan Samadi said he had lost stock worth £3,000 from his cellar, and hundreds of pounds worth of business because he could not open at lunch time or offer a full menu in the evening.

Before the water receded, pasta, bottles of wine, napkins and table cloths were ruined by the muddy water.

He said: "The cellar was full of sewage coming from outside - there was more than a metre of dirty water in the cellar."

A Thames Water spokesman said St Clement's was reopened on Wednesday night and water supplies were back to normal.

The pipe below St Clement's burst at about 6.30am yesterday, leaving the street impassable between Morrell Avenue and Dawson Street.

Commuters faced delays and bus and coach services throughout the city were affected.

Thames Water re-routed water supplies to the 1,000 properties affected.

However, it had difficulty finding a part to fix the ruptured pipe, which was connected to the Headington reservoir.

"It was a very unusual component," a spokesman said.

"We had a bit of a struggle locating one to make an exact fit, but we did get one."

However, Mr Samadi, whose insurance company is to assess the damage today, criticised the water company for its actions.

He said: "They are the company that's making the money from us as the little business people.

"I pay them for sewerage and the water. They should be looking after us.

That's why I'm annoyed with them."