The gas pipe was fractured on Monday afternoon

About 5,000 people are still without gas after an underground pipe was fractured by a digger at Middlestone Moor, near Spennymoor, County Durham.

Many of those affected were given electric heaters and hot plates.

But the strain on electricity substations caused fuses to blow, blacking out more than 300 homes.

At one point more than 10,000 homes in surrounding towns and villages were without gas after Monday's leak.

The main has now been repaired, but residents now face a long wait as engineers must visit each property to carry out safety checks.

Customers can help the situation if they can stagger their peak use of electricity, for example for cooking, to outside of peak times CE Electric

The situation has been compounded by problems with electricity supplies to some homes in the Crook area because of the massive demand for power.

A spokesman for distributor CE Electric said: "The gas leak is placing an unprecedented demand on the electricity network as customers seek to use electricity for cooking and heating.

"This is causing interruptions to electricity supply in some locations as fuses blow in substations.

"About 300 customers were affected at peak on Tuesday evening and we are aiming to restore power to all of them soon.

"Customers can help the situation if they can stagger their peak use of electricity, for example for cooking, to outside of peak times."

A spokeswoman for Northern Gas Networks, said the supply problem could take some time to resolve.

He said: "It's not as simple as throwing a switch. We have to make sure that the gas pipeline network is completely full of gas before we can begin to reconnect people.

"We hope that the majority will be back on in the next few days, but realistically it could take a week to get all those reconnected."

She said those affected would automatically receive compensation of �30 for every 24-hour period without gas, which it was estimated, would cover the cost of any additional electricity usage.

Durham County Council has taken emergency measures to ensure vulnerable areas such as care homes have adequate heating and cooking facilities.