OLD Town has been plunged into darkness this evening following a power cut.

The Adver offices lost it's power just after 5pm and it is thought approximately 8,000 homes and businesses have been affected, with the cause unknown.

Although power was returned to some houses within 10 minutes, many were left in darkness for more than an hour.

Pizza Express in Bath Road is one of the restaurants affected and bookings have had to be cancelled this evening.

A spokesman for Southern Electric said they had received thousands of calls.

The spokesman said: “Swindon was affected by a power cut at 5.05pm, which affected just under 8,000 customers.

“We had staff on site by 7.15pm to investigate the fault. We successfully rerouted the network and within an hour we had 7,500 customers back on. 360 customers are currently still without power, but they are expected to all be back on by 9pm.

“Engineers are still investigating the cause, but our priority has been getting the network back on as quickly as possible.”