ENGINEERS spent the morning (Saturday, 28 May) working to repair a burst water main that blocked two roads in a busy area of Thurrock.

The burst occurred on Kent Road in Grays at around 4am and that road and the adjacent East Thurrock Road were impassable.

Kent Road was reopened by noon and workers then concentrated their efforts on East Thurrock Road.

Residents in the area have now reported that their water supply has been shut off.

Essex and Suffolk Water initially said: "Work is on-going but the repairs are taking longer than planned. We appreciate your patience during this work."

At 2.45pm Essex and Suffolk Water issued a statement saying: "We were made aware of a burst on one of our 12 inch water mains in the East Thurrock Road in the early hours of Saturday morning.

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"Our crews attended immediately to stop the flow of water and are now working as quickly as they can to repair the pipe. The water supply to a small number of customers has been temporarily affected while our crews cut out the damaged section of pipe in order to complete the repair.

"Due to the size of the pipe, there was some damage to the road when it burst, and some parked cars were affected by localised flooding. We are working closely with those customers affected.

"East Thurrock Road is currently closed and a diversion is in place while we carry out the repair to the pipework over the next couple of hours, but we anticipate this to remain closed until the road can be repaired. Regular updates will be posted on our customer twitter account @eswater_care.

"We'd like to apologise for the inconvenience this has caused to customers in the area and thank them for their patience and understanding while we work quickly to get things back to normal."