Burst pipe floods south London high street

Motorists and pedestrians have been warned to avoid a south London high street after a burst pipe sent water cascading down the road.

Tooting High Street was shut in the early hours, causing rush hour disruption.

Police tweeted a picture of the scene, near Tooting Broadway Station, that was strewn with debris as water gushed from a crack in the pavement.

It is not known if the burst pipe was damaged in recent severe cold weather.

Some people in the area had low water pressure or no water supply because of the flooding but repairs have since been completed, Thames Water said.

It comes after thousands of homes were left without water or suffered from low pressure because of freezing weather over the weekend.

Writing to Thames Water, London Mayor Sadiq Khan described the shortage as "unacceptable".

In a letter to the firm's CEO Steve Robertson, Mr Khan said: "I am extremely concerned to see the supply issues experienced this weekend with significant numbers of Londoners being left without water for up to four days.

"While I appreciate that the weather conditions played a part in the water outages and increase in leaks I would have expected Thames Water to have foreseen this and had appropriate plans in place.

"It is critical that Thames Water reviews and steps up plans to upgrade and maintain your network.

"I expect generous compensation to be issued to those affected and that this will be clearly and proactively communicated as well as issued quickly."

A spokesman for Thames Water, said "The mayor of London and the Consumer Council for Water have asked us to look at how we compensate customers in these circumstances and we've agreed to do so.

"For now our focus remains on getting every single customer back into supply."

Thames Water said its engineers reached the scene in Tooting "very quickly" and have stopped the flooding.

The A24/Tooting High Street remains closed between Tooting Broadway Station and Hoyle Road while Mitcham Road has reopened.

Transport for London said Tooting Broadway Station remained fully open and trains were running as normal.