Court shut and homes evacuated after pipe bursts

Westminster Magistrates Court has been closed and residents in Marylebone have been evacuated from their homes after a burst water main flooded a central London street.

Eight fire engines and about 60 firefighters dealt with flooding across the area around Enford Street and York Street, the London Fire Brigade (LFB) said.

Hearings at the court, which is one of Britain's busiest magistrates' courts, on the neighbouring Marylebone Road, werepostponed.

The burst pipe left two metres (6.5ft) of water in basement flats along Enford Street and York Street, and residents were evacuated as a precaution, the LFB said.

Security staff shut the doors of Westminster Magistrates' Court and lawyers and other court users were seen waiting outside for updates from staff.

Manchester Arena bomb plotter Hashem Abedi was among those due to appear at the court on Thursday.

Westminster deals with some of the most serious cases including terror and extradition, and is where the chief magistrate sits.

Court staff said there was no water in the building and it was a public health risk.

Resident Lachlan Dinham said he and his partner woke up at about 05:00 BST to water coming out of their electric plug sockets.

"Within about half an hour, basically our whole kitchen was submerged," he said.

"We grabbed everything we could - passports; we're recently engaged so we got the ring - and made our way out.

"The bricks actually started to pop out of the wall, we thought the building was going to start falling to pieces, but we made it out safely."

He said he was waiting to find out where they would be able to stay.

Station commander Brien O'Keeffe advised people to continue to avoid the area.

Traffic restrictions were put in place on Marylebone Road, Seymour Place, Crawford Street and Gloucester Place.

He said crewsused flood barriers and sandbags to divert flood water away from homes and worked to assist partner agencies to resolve the incident as quickly as possible.

The LFB received 15 calls to the incident at 05:20 BST and sent crews from Paddington, Euston, Soho, Chelsea, Kentish Town and surrounding fire stations.

The incident was over for firefighters by about 11:40.

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