Blackheath homes flooded after water main bursts

Six properties have been flooded and several roads closed after a water main burst in south-east London.

People were evacuated from six basement flats in Meadowcourt Road and Eltham Road in Blackheath after they were flooded to a depth of about 20cm.

Other homes in the area have been left without water or with low pressure and London Fire Brigade (LFB) has advised people to avoid the area.

LFB added the flooding was now "under control" and no injuries were reported.

Ten fire engines and some 70 firefighters were called to the scene at 04:38 GMT.

The ruptured pipe flooded an area of about 600m by 200m to a depth of around 50cm, according to LFB.

As well as homes being evacuated, the local fire station has been affected by the flooding while Blackheath High School has had to close its junior school. "Significant road closures" are also in place, LFB said.

Adam Keeler, whose flat was one of those flooded, said the inside of his building was like a "swimming pool" and added it had meant an "awful start to the new year".

"As the driveway and street were flooded it meant I couldn't travel to work today as well as there being train strikes, so I tried to work from home, but we've had no electricity since 10:30 now so I've not been able to do much," he said.

He added he felt "very let down" by Thames Water as he had previously alerted the firm to a leak on Eltham Road using Twitter in December last year, which "they said they were aware of but nothing had been done".

Thames Water said their online customer team was in touch with Mr. Keeler and the burst site was "separate to the leak shown in the tweet".

The firm added that Mr. Keeler's leak alert "would have been logged and prioritised for investigation based on its scale and if it was affecting customer supplies - we fix over 1000 leaks per week, which is one leak every 10mins."

"We're sorry to customers who experienced low pressure or no water this morning," Thames Water added.

"Customers should all be back in supply and we're continuing to resolve localised reports of low pressure."

Properties in the postcode districts of SE3, SE7, SE9, SE10, SE12, SE13 and SE15 have been experiencing no or low water pressure as a result of the burst main, according to Thames Water.

In a statement about the flooding the firm said: "We're really sorry if you've been affected by a large burst pipe early this morning on the A20 Eltham Road, in SE12.

"We've now shut off the flow from the damaged section and are working to get things back to normal as soon as possible.

"We'd also like to apologise to drivers affected by the closure of the A20."

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