Thousands of properties including schools and a toll bridge in Shrewsbury were left without electricity after a power cut affected parts of the town.

Shrewsbury School, Coleham Primary School, in Greyfriars Road, and Kingsland Toll Bridge were among the properties affected by the problem yesterday.

About 3,000 properties, including homes and businesses, in part of the town were initially left without power, just before 12.50pm.

Central Networks said power was restored to about 1,500 properties within the hour, and all were back on by just after 3pm.

Engineers worked to switch around power supplies. The problem was caused by a fault on a high voltage network, and engineers were today continuing investigations to determine the exact problem.

Mary Gater, toll-keeper for the Kingsland Toll Bridge in Shrewsbury, said the power cut had struck at about 12.45pm.

She said: “The power cut has affected everywhere including the dentists and all the flats on the other side of the road.”

She said the barriers on the toll bridge were not working yesterday because of the power cut.

Felicity Roberts, communications assistant for children and young people’s services at Shropshire Council, said: “Coleham Primary School was affected by a power cut between about 12.50pm and 1.30pm yesterday. As the power cut only lasted about 40 minutes it caused only minor disruption.”

Shrewsbury School was also affected by the power cut for more than two hours, although it had little impact as its students had already broken up for the school holidays.

A spokeswoman for Central Network said the power cut affected about 3,000.