Water gushes from damaged mains

Water was sent gushing 30ft into the air for more than two hours after workmen struck a mains pipe in a busy Black Country road.

One side of the dual carriageway through Smethwick was shut off as workers tried to stem the flow.

Traffic crawled past the accidental fountain as it sent gallons of water flowing down Oldbury Road.

The dramatic scenes were caused after contractors working on behalf of electrical supply firm E.on damaged a 15in mains pipe. Water started gushing at 11am yesterday and stopped shortly before 1.45pm.

Emergency teams were called out from South Staffs Water, which said no customers were affected as supplies were diverted after the affected main was closed off.

South Staffs Water spokeswoman Rachel Barber said: "A contractor working on behalf of E.on damaged a 15-inch water main. What we do at the point of damage is turn off the water supply to that main and redirect water supplies so we maintain other supplies to as many customers as we can."

She said repair work had begun but they would not know the extent of the damage until they had excavated the area to inspect the pipe.

E.on spokesman Andrew Barrow said the contractors had been working to connect electricity to new homes nearby. We will sit down with the contractors, and there will be an investigation into exactly what happened and re-start the work as soon as everything has been deemed safe," he said.

"We apologise to anybody who was inconvenienced by it."