Cinema, shops and homes affected as Walsall power cut hits
A power cut hit hundreds of shops, homes, traffic lights and a cinema after an underground cable fault in the Black Country.
Almost 700 customers were affected by the loss of electricity in and around Walsall town centre.
Families at the Showcase Cinema near to junction 10 of the M6 had their viewing cut short as the power went out before the end of their films.
Western Power Distribution said an underground cable fault was to blame and power was restored to the majority of the 693 properties inside an hour.
Holland & Barrett in Park Street was one of the businesses to lose power and was unable to trade for around 90 minutes during the blackout yesterday afternoon.
Manager Christine Tolley said: "The power just went off and it went dark. We closed for about an hour-and-a-half.
"Obviously we lost a fair bit of trade and it was the inconvenience. It is our busiest time of the day and we must have lost a few hundred pound at least."
Joanne Payne, aged 39, from Aldridge, was watching the Odd Life of Timothy Green with 11 year-old daughter Kayleigh at just after 1pm.
They were given free tickets to compensate for missing some of the showing. "It was nearly the end, there must have been 15 minutes left when it just went off," she said.
"There were emergency glow lights but it affected the whole cinema. They had to evacuate and then stood on the door. It is not the cinema's fault. But they have given everybody a free ticket."
Engineers were sent to the area as they worked to restore electricity to 65 customers in Park Street and Bridge Street. The fault was reported just after after 1pm and power was completely restored at 2.17pm.
