A couple who stayed up all night listening to their kitchen flooding after a pipe burst are angry Thames Water did not help them turn their water off.

Anthony and Susan Lee, of Farm Close Road in Wheatley, were woken up at 11.30pm last Saturday when a pipe in their kitchen split and water started gushing out.

They were unable to turn their water off as they could not reach the stopcock, which is outside their house in the road.

They called Thames Water to ask if someone could be sent round to help but were told the company would not get involved since the pipe was not its responsibility.

Mr Lee, 69, said: "I had to sit there on the stairs listening to the water flowing out and my kitchen being ruined.

"All I wanted was for Thames Water to turn the water supply off so I could go back to sleep and deal with it in the morning.

"I know it isn't their responsibility but I thought they would probably have a van out anyway and it would only have been a five-minute job.

"But they didn't want to know they were completely unhelpful and unsympathetic. Their attitude was 'it's your problem, get on with it'.

"From a company that makes millions of pounds in profit, and charges exorbitant rates for its so-called services, I find this attitude disgusting.

"A hosepipe ban has been imposed on Thames Water customers and yet the company are quite happy for water to be flooding into my home for 11 hours when all that would have been required to stop it was for a stopcock to be turned.

"The way we were treated was unacceptable.

"The only way I could get it to stop was to get a local plumber to come out. He did it straight away."

Robin Markwell, of Thames Water, said: "We look after our water supply, but this was a private plumbing system in a private house so is not our responsibility.

"People assume we have responsibility for every water pipe. We have our resources diverted elsewhere maintaining our own pipes. We apologise if our staff were rude on the telephone to Mr Lee."