MORE than 70 homes at Mottisfont were left without water after mains burst in the village.

Workmen battled for hours to repair the fracture a six-inch pipeline on the B3048 near the Almshouses at Hatt Hill.

Tuesday morning’s burst sent huge volumes of water running down the hill and into the River Dun.

For a time the B3084 was under a foot of water north of Mottisfont & Dunbridge Station.

Water was still gushing from the leak late in the afternoon and part of the road surface was lifted by the pressure of the water which was coming out in two separate places.

It’s the second major burst in the area within the last few weeks. Last month homes in the same area lost water supplies when a mains burst in Lockerley Road in neighbouring Dunbridge.

Engineers turned off water supplies for about 45 minutes in the evening while the damaged pipeline was repaired.

A Southern spokesperson said: “We are sorry if the repair took longer than our customers might expect. The water was off for about 45 minutes and 74 properties were affected. Our leaking teams got to the site within an hour of the initial call. However the repair proved complex due to the location of the burst. The other burst about two weeks ago was on a different water main and was unrelated. Water mains can burst for a number of reasons, including ground movement and a sudden drop in temperature.”