A problem at a Belco substation has left thousands of western parish customers without power, the electric company has confirmed.

Work crews started to restore power in small pockets shortly before 9pm and are still working to bring more than 2,000 residents back online.

Wayne Caines, the president of Belco, tracked the problem to the Belmont substation in Warwick, which experienced an underground fault at about 7pm.

Mr Caines said: “Belco crews were immediately dispatched to determine the cause of the outage and are working to restore power as quickly and safely as possible.

“Please note that Belco's online outage map may not reflect current conditions. Updates will be provided on Belco's social-media channels.”

He added: “Belco thanks customers for their patience while they work to restore power.”

The blanket outage completely covered Sandys Southampton and Warwick when it first struck and stretched as far east as Valley Road in Paget.

By 8pm, more than 10,823 homes and businesses were left in the dark.

As of 9.20pm, 1,743 customers were still without power, with almost all of them being concentrated in Sandys.

The power station warned the public to use “extreme caution” while walking, driving or riding near work crews.

Belco also recommended affected customers unplug any sensitive equipment and electronics.