EMERGENCY services and engineers from Scottish & Southern Energy are investigating the cause of a fire which blacked out 3,800 customers earlier today.

Thousands of homes in the Malmesbury and Tetbury areas suffered a power black out after two electricity poles caught fire.

Fire crews from Corsham and Chippenham were called out to tackle the blaze shortly after 6.30pm this evening.

The fire was quickly put out but not before it had blacked out 3,800 customers in the area.

A SSE spokeswoman said: "We have received a report of possible damage to our overhead network this evening.

"Our engineers are working to restore all supplies affected as quickly and safely as possible and do still aim to have power restored by 20:00."

Two electricity poles were seen on fire in Park Lane, Malmesbury, and in a neighbouring field.

Power was eventually restored at 7.55pm after homes had been blacked out for just over an hour.

The SSE spokeswoman added: "We would like to apologise to customers who were impacted by the power cut earlier this evening.

"We are working with emergency services to make sure that the site is contained and to investigate the root cause of the fire."