ONE thousand households suffered a blackout last night and woke up to flashing alarm clocks and video machines.

The power cut, in St John's Worcester, happened at about 11.50pm, when most people were in bed.

It lasted just under an hour for most of those affected.

A total of 995 customers were affected by the glitch, which was due to "an underground cable fault", according to a spokesman for electricity supplier Central Networks.

Fault

He said the blackout had affected Comer Gardens, Nuffield Close, Oldbury Road, Packhorse Close, King Arthurs Close and Stallard Road.

"It looks like the fault cracked off at about 11.50pm," he said.

"The majority of people were back on by 12.47am and everybody was back on by 1.30am. Obviously we would like to apologise to everybody who was affected."

Nigel Probert, from Penhill Crescent, St John's, said he had gone to bed at about 11pm and awoke to a house full of flashing electrical instruments.

"We were asleep in bed when it happened - we went to bed about 11pm - but when I woke up at 6am the alarm clock was flashing and the video had stopped - thankfully I wasn't late for work!"