The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Explosion CAusEs mAnholE CovEr to fly into thE Air
Lucky escape for shoppers on busy city centre street
Shoppers had a lucky escape after an underground explosion launched a manhole cover into the air in Peterborough city centre. The incident happened in LongCausewayneartheMarie Curie charity shop at about 1.30pm on Monday.
Residents reported hearing a large bang, before the cover was blown into the air on the busy street, which was filled with shoppers, children and workers on their lunch break.
An area of the street was cordoned off while engineers worked to make the scene safe, andfindwhathadcaused the problem.
Eyewitness Sarah Ratcliffe said: “Myself, myone-year-old and my three-year-old were maybe six metres away - it could easily havekilled them.”
A spokesman for UK Power Networks said: “UK Power Networks engineers quickly attended the Long Causeway area of Peterborough at 1.40pm today, after an incident was reported to us at 1.31pm by the fire brigade.
“We had 10 properties off supply from 1.31pm today but all had their power supplies restored at 3.38pm. Wewould like to apologise to them for any inconvenience caused.”
It is not the f i rst t i me an explosion has caused a manhole cover to be blown into the air in the city, but the UK Power Networks spokesman said: “Incidents such as explosions and fires areveryrare, withthevastma- jority of electrical faults found and repaired without any external impact.
“Public safety is always our top priority.”
A police spokesman said: “We were called at about 1.10pm on Monday afternoon with reports of a manhole cover exploding into the air in Long Causeway, Peterborough.
“Thankfully no one has been injured, however the area was evacuated.”