Water station runs out of bottles during outage

A pop-up station providing bottled water to people affected by a burst water pipe was temporarily forced to close after running out of bottles.

Thames Water said the leak was affecting supplies in the RG4 and RG9 postcode areas of Sonning Common and Henley-on-Thames.

A bottled water station at the Tesco store in Henley was temporarily closed while stocks were replenished.

The water company said it had shut off the burst pipe near Reades Lane in Sonning Common and was hoping to improve supplies overnight.

It said: "The re-routing of water around our pipes means your water will return as the pressure in the pipe builds.

"Unfortunately, this is taking longer than we expected.

"When your water returns you may notice at first the pressure at your tap is lower than you're used to, but this will improve overnight as further water is re-routed around the area."

Most schools in the area, including Maiden Erlegh Chiltern Edge and Sonning Common Primary, were forced to close for the day following the leak.

The bottled water station was closed for the night at 21:00 GMT and would reopen at 08:00 if needed, Thames Water said.

The firm said it was also delivering bottled water to priority customers.

You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.