Residents of Woodhouse were engulfed in darkness on Tuesday night after a power outage struck the area for hours.

The blackout started at approximately 7pm in the evening, with power finally restored at 4am on Wednesday morning. 264 houses were affected on Hartley Crescent and Burchett Place, as well as further in to Woodhouse.

One second year resident said: “I can’t believe that the power outage is going to last for so long. Usually back home power cuts only last for a couple of hours.”

Many students also took to Twitter in anger. A third year Business student at Leeds Metropolitan tweeted: “What a night. Powercut at 7pm, no phone battery, no heating, no laptop battery, house alarm goes off…”

Engineers worked through the night to restore power, digging into Pennington Street.

One of the engineers predicted that the outage would be out all night, saying that it was most likely caused by “the age of the cables.” He also theorized that it “could be the weather. People are using things like heaters which wears the cables out.”

A spokesperson for Northern Powergrid said: “Our cables are there to cope with demand, but sometimes they do deteriorate.” They added: “If faults like this were to reoccur we would have to investigate further.”

A police van patrolled the area throughout the night, as some residents expressed fear that the blackout would create opportunities for burglars.

Sean Hayes