Vandals have damaged three electricity substations in Northampton in the past week, cutting power to hundreds of local homes and leaving themselves at risk of serious injury or death, according to Central Networks.

Engineers called to a substation in Broad Street, Northampton, on Friday found intruders had broken into the substation and damaged high voltage electrical equipment inside. Abandoned tools were also found at the scene.

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A total of 861 customers were affected, 325 of whom were without power for around two hours before engineers were able to repair the equipment and reconnect them.

Two other substations in the nearby area were also found to have been vandalised.

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

"We work very hard to keep people's lights on 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."

(CD/KMcA)