THE Newton Abbot area was hit by two power cuts in two days, affecting more than 23,000 properties in total.

On Monday, residents reported flickering lights across the town and it soon became apparent the self-service checkouts at Asda were not working.

Western Power Distribution confirmed there was a high voltage fault that affected 1,668 households and several businesses.

Within ten minutes, 1,073 households had their electricity restored.

Then, on Tuesday evening, more than 22,000 properties were without power after engineers turned it off in order to find a fault, causing widespread disruption.

Shop alarms could be heard across the town and it was later confirmed there was a circuit breaker fault on the Brunel Industrial Estate, Newton Abbot.

Most customers had power restored to their homes within the hour.

A spokesman for the power company said: ‘We do not think it’s linked to the power cut in TQ12 earlier this week.’

Reports on social media suggest that among the areas of Newton Abbot affected were Bradley Barton, the Abbotsbury area, the Coombeshead area, Buckland and Milber.

Surrounding areas hit included Abbotskerswell, Decoy, Ogwell, Kingsteignton, Denbury and Ipplepen.