Water shoots 100ft in the air as pipe blows

Water shot 100ft into the air and flooded gardens in a South Staffordshire village after a farmer cut through an underground pipe, leaving 800 homes without supplies.

Roads in Pattingham were turned into muddy rivers after water gushed down from fields behind homes.

Severn Trent Water cut off supplies to hundreds of homes as dirty water cascaded through back gardens in Moor Lane yesterday afternoon.

South Staffordshire Housing Association handed out sandbags to divert the water.

Moor Lane resident Les Perry, aged 57, said: "The water was shooting into the air — it was higher than the electricity pylons in the field. I couldn't believe it. We now have a foot of water in our back garden."

Glynis Watkins, aged 54, who has lived in Moor Lane for 31 years, said: "I was really worried when I first saw the water. Thankfully it didn't go into the house."

Sarah O'Kane, spokesman for Severn Trent Water, said: "A farmer sheared off the air valve which resulted in a big gap in the pipe."

Water supplies were today understood to have been reinstated.