Thames Water apologises for 'massive' pipe burst

Thames Water has "profusely apologised" for what it called a "massive" mains water pipe burst which caused flooding overnight in west London.

Thousands of people have been left with no water or low water pressure in the Shepherd's Bush, Holland Park, Kensington and Notting Hill areas following the incident.

Martin Padley, water director for Thames Water, told BBC London: "We think about 600 litres a second was leaving the hole – a huge amount of water that has unfortunately led to flooding."

The area around the Holland Park roundabout was submerged in water up to 3ft (1m) deep at about 03:55 GMT on Wednesday.

Thames Water said customers in the following postcodes may have low water pressure or no water: W12, W6, W4, W14, W8, W12, W11, W1H.

The pipe was thought to have burst at about 02:00 on Wednesday.

About 40 firefighters dealt with the flooding in the early hours of the morning and used an inflatable rescue boat to evacuate nearby homes.

Padley said: "We are trying to isolate it but there is a balance… because we put a huge number of people into supply interruption and we don't want to do that.

"We are trying to balance the flooding with protecting supply to most of our customers.

"There are quite a lot of people in various postcodes with no or low water supply.

"There are about 2,000 customers we believe in current supply interruption and many more with low pressure."

London Fire Brigade (LFB) station commander Kris Seymour said: "A burst 30-inch water main caused flooding up to 1m deep, affecting more than 50 homes and a hotel over a one mile area."

He added: "Firefighters used specialist equipment, including an inflatable rescue boat to evacuate affected residents, and flood barriers to divert flood water, which has now subsided."

LFB said the incident was "over for firefighters" by 05:23. Residents were taken to a local hotel.

There are road closures in place around Holland Park roundabout.

Resident Christina said she noticed there were problems with the supply when she went to get a glass of water.

She said: "There was no water in the kitchen... nothing in the bathroom or the shower."

Christina added that her personal trainer then called to say her gym was closed due to no water supply.

"I thought it was quite a localised thing, it was just our building… but actually I looked out the window and saw chaos," she said.

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