Huge water leak cuts supply to thousands of homes across five London boroughs - as hundreds queue for 'rationed' water at supermarket
Massive queue for water bottles at supermarkets as South West London and Surrey hit by outage
Thousands of homes across five London boroughs were without water this morning due to a massive leak.
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Thames Water said there was an 'issue' with water supply in multiple postcodes in south-west London.
People in Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Richmond upon Thames, Sutton and Wandsworth are affected.
The Surrey districts of Elmbridge and Spelthorne are also facing supply issues.
Images captured at what is believed to be the source of the leak by TheLocal365.com show The Wilderness sports ground in Molesey underwater.
Huge queues of residents built up outside supermarkets where bottle water was being 'rationed' according to a local councillor.
Thames Water said: “Sorry if your tap water isn’t running at the moment. We're dealing with a large burst water main which is affecting the water supply to the wider area.
“Our specialist team is now on site and working to stop the water flooding from the broken pipe. We've rerouted water around the area and customers in the Surbiton area should begin to see their water return shortly, the pressure may be lower than normal, but this will return once we've fixed the broken pipe.
“Unfortunately, owing to the location of the burst, it's likely to take some time to fix.
“We know how disruptive it is if you lose your water supply, so we’ll work hard to get things back to normal as soon as we can.”
The following postcodes may be affected: CR4, KT1, KT10, KT12, KT2, KT3, KT5, KT6, KT7, KT8, SM4, SW16, SW17, SW18, SW19, SW20, TW10, TW16.
Cllr Steve Bax for Molesley council posted a picture of a huge queue outside a supermarket and said that water supplies were being 'rationed'.
Another resident said that a supermarket in the area had totally run out of bottled water.
One resident told SurreyLive that schools have been shut and one supermarket has sold out of water.
Some schools in parts of south west London and Surrey have been forced to close. Among them are Long Ditton Infant and Nursery School and Thames Ditton Infant School. Esher Sixth Form and College and Holy Cross School have also closed in New Malden.
MP for Esher and Walton Monica Harding said that 750L of water a second was being lost.