Homes evacuated after water main bursts

Homes have been evacuated after a water main burst and caused "significant" damage to a road.

Emergency workers were called to Lincoln Road, in the Werrington area of Peterborough, on Sunday evening.

Peterborough City Council said about 20 homes were affected by flooding.

Pictures released by the emergency services show the carriageway covered in water, a police cordon in place and firefighters working at the scene.

Anglian Water apologised and said: "We’re estimating we’ll have fixed the water main today, but we’ll need to continue repairing the road for the next few days."

Lincoln Road has been closed from David's Lane to the Cock Inn pub as emergency work got under way.

Cambridgeshire Fire Service said it sent three crews to pump water away and advised residents to stay clear.

The city council said the road would remain closed until "at least" Monday morning.

"Emergency services are currently dealing with a burst water pipe which has caused significant damage," it wrote on social media.

Michael Hutton, who lives in Lincoln Road, said water had rushed through other gardens and pooled into his.

"We didn’t know how bad it was going to get, that was the nervous thing about it," the 47-year-old told the BBC.

"We didn't know when it was going to stop.

"The worst thing about it is we’ve just bought a brand new barbecue - we haven’t used it and now it’s in the pond."

Elem Jones said her garden had been turned into a "swimming pool" after water poured through.

She added that the entire downstairs of her house, as well as her car and lawn mower, had been badly damaged.

"It’s been a nightmare, a horrendous experience – not the way you want to spend your Bank Holiday," Ms Jones said.

In a statement, Anglian Water said its customer support unit was on site to help residents.

"We would like to reassure those customers affected that we will pick up the tab to get things back to normal as quickly as possible.

"Clean up teams are on site to help but we’d like to sincerely apologise to those customers who have been affected.

“In order to keep our teams and other road users safe while we work, we have needed to close part of Lincoln Road, with a full diversion in place via David’s Lane."

The firm said it aimed to fix the damage as quickly as possible.

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