Hundreds without water due to burst main

Hundreds of people are having to use bottled water in a West Sussex town after a water main burst.

South East Water apologised to customers in Hassocks, but insisted it was making "good progress" with the leak, which was spotted on Friday night.

The firm dubbed the work "complex" because it was on a bend and the condition of the ground was "difficult".

It said there were currently 686 customers without water but that service would be restored by Saturday evening.

"We will continue to work to fix this as quickly as we can," the water company said.

Its teams had been working through the night to fix the problems, it added.

"We apologise for the frustration and are working tirelessly to restore normal service as quickly as possible," a spokesman said.

It was revealed in June that more than 100 million litres of water a day were wasted by South East Water due to leaks.

There is a bottled water station at Tesco, in Burgess Hill, which will be open until 22:00 BST.

The firm said it had delivered bottled water to customers on its priority services register.

South East Water had also been fixing another burst pipe at Stanley Gardens, in Herne Bay, Kent.

It announced at 13:35 BST it had repaired the pipe and customers "should now see your taps flowing as normal".

It told customers not to worry if the water was brown, saying it was not dangerous.

"This happens when small particles of iron within the mains are disturbed," the company said.

Water could also come out white or cloudy, it added.

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