Oswestry and Shrewsbury residents left without water

Large parts of Gobowen and St Martins were without mains water as people woke today.

Severn Trent contacted householders with automated phone messages saying they hoped to have the supply back on by lunchtime.

Staff at Stan's Superstore in St Martins had to use five litre drums of water from its shelves to use throughout the shop to ensure it could open on one of the busiest days of the week.

"We had hot water in the tanks and as the shop is given a thorough clean down each night the store was able to open on time," spokesman Justin Smart said.

"We had to do an extra trip to the cash and carry to keep up with the demand for bottled water - it was flying off the shelves."

"Our coffee machine is piped to the mains so was out of use but we were able to get a big water urn boiling and use kettles and we offered teas and coffees for a special price of just £1. People were arriving without having had their morning cuppa so they were very grateful."

A Severn Trent spokesman said: "It has taken us a little time to find the exact location of the leak, but now that we've found it, we've got our teams on site working to start the repair.

"Our first priority though is to get customer's water supplies back on as soon as possible, so we're currently working to move water around our network of pipes to bring water into the area. This is ongoing now and we expect all customers to have their water supplies back on within the hour."

Meanwhile in Shrewsbury there has been problems after a water pipe burst on Oteley Road causing a loss of water supply.

A Severn Trent Water spokesman said: "We're happy to say that all customers should now have their water supplies back on.

"Our teams have now fixed the burst pipe and are now repairing the road surface. We hope that the traffic lights will be gone and everything will back to normal by tonight. We're really sorry if this causes and delays or inconvenience for people in the area.

"We know how difficult it is to have no water, especially during busy times of the day and we're really sorry for any disruption and inconvenience this may have caused you today.

"The pipe that burst is in a main road and so we have had to put traffic lights in place to allow us to do the work safely. We're really sorry if this causes and delays or inconvenience for people in the area. We will work around the clock until everything is back to normal.

"People in the area may have noticed that we're doing some work further up Oteley Road. This is a £2 million investment programme to replace two and a half miles of this exact same pipe. The pipe is getting old and we had some issues with it bursting recently and so we've taken the decision to replace it. This morning's burst was on the old part of the pipe and so just reinforces that decision. Work started in September and will be completed early next year."