A LIGHTNING strike has been blamed for a power cut which plunged 6,600 homes and businesses in Milford and Godalming into darkness for two hours on Sunday evening. A Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks spokesman said: “We believe the power cut was caused after part of our overhead network was struck by lightning.”

The power giant used a helicopter to fly along the route to inspect the line and identify the equipment which needed replacing, and any other related work.”

“The power went off shortly after 6.30pm, and our priority is to restore supplies as safely and as quickly as possible. We were able to do this by re-routing customers onto a different part of the network in stages, with everyone back on shortly after 9pm.”