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Theft causes widespread blackout Theft causes widespread blackout
(20 minutes later)
Thousands of homes, shops and offices in the West Midlands are without power after thieves stole a copper earthing cable from an electricity sub-station. Thousands of homes, shops and offices have been left without power after thieves stole a copper earthing cable from an electricity sub-station.
More than 16,000 premises have been affected in the Dudley and Tipton areas of the Black Country following the incident. About 20,400 premises have been affected in the Dudley and Tipton areas of the Black Country following the incident on Thursday morning.
The Merry Hill shopping centre in Dudley has also been affected. More than 8,000 had power restored within an hour, Central Networks said.
Jonathan Smith, a spokesman for Central Networks, said engineers were working to restore supplies. The sub-station in Dudley where the incident happened was shut down at 1120 GMT for safety reasons.
They were replacing the cabling and are switching customers to other power circuits where possible. Cabling replaced
"We decided to remove power to 20,400 customers after the break-in," a spokesman said.
"We hope customers understand why we had to do that and engineers are working as quickly as possible to bring the power back."
Engineers have been replacing the cabling and switching customers to other power circuits where possible.
Central Networks said it hoped power would be restored fully by early-to-mid afternoon.
The Merry Hill shopping centre in the area has been affected by the incident.