Vandals have damaged two electricity substations in Long Eaton in the past month, cutting power to local homes and leaving themselves at risk of serious injury or death, according to Central Networks.

The latest incident was in the early hours of New Year's Day in the Manor House Road area of Long Eaton where intruders broke into the substation and damaged equipment inside.

A total of 72 customers in nearby Nathaniel Road were without power for around two hours before engineers were able to reconnect them.

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On 13 December a substation in Grosvenor Ave, Long Eaton, was broken into. This time copper earthing wire had been stolen.

Phil Wilson, Customer Operations Manager with Central Networks, said: "The sheer stupidity of vandalising or interfering with the power network should be glaringly obvious to everyone.

"We work very hard to keep people's lights on and their homes warm and incidents like this not only make that job harder but also more dangerous. Vandalising substations is dangerous for those people stupid enough to do it but is also a hazard for our engineers and for passing members of the public unaware that anything has gone on."

The reckless - and potentially deadly - actions of thieves targeting power lines and electricity substations have already led to two fatalities, a number of serious injuries and more than 50,000 customers temporarily losing their electricity supply throughout the region.

(CD/JM)