Crystal Palace: Thames Water fixes burst pipe to restore supplies

T hames Water says it has fixed the burst pipe restoring supply "to the majority of homes" in south London which were left without water since Tuesday evening.

Thousands of people in Crystal Palace, Forest Hill, Sydenham, West Norwood and Streatham were affected by the outage. The company added that it was "working hard to flush and do our final checks to fully restore supplies to customers".

Seven schools and three care homes have been affected by the leak in the SE19, SE20, SE23, SE26, SE27 and SW16 postcodes .

"We're sorry to customers in the Crystal Palace area who have no water or lower pressure than normal due to a burst pipe," it said in a statement on Friday morning.

Locals told BBC London there were "torrents of dirty water gushing down the street" following Tuesday's leak in Dulwich.

A bottled water facility at Sainsbury's Southend Lane had to be closed on Thursday due to a "security incident" but will reopen on 09:00 GMT on Friday, Thames Water said.

On Friday, Thames Water said it would challenge the water regulator Ofwat's ruling to limit price rises to 31% over the next five years as this "does not appropriately support the investment and improvement that is required for Thames Water to deliver for its customers, communities and the environment".

That came just two days after bosses admitted it will not complete more than 100 environmental schemes funded by customers, prompting an investigation by Ofwat.

Thames Water loses 24% of the water it supplies in leaks.