Burst pipe causes 70ft water fountain in Liverpool

Thousands of homes in Merseyside could be without water after a pipe burst on a construction site, sending a plume of water 70ft into the air.

At around 9am on Thursday morning, United Utilities said a third-party contractor on a housing development site on Cartbridge Lane in Halewood, south Liverpool, punctured one of its high-pressured water mains.

As a result, a fountain of water erupted from the pipe and a tunnel of water was sent more than 70ft into the air - well above the height of local homes.

A United Utilities spokesman said: "We've had engineers on site carefully reducing the flow of water going through the damaged water pipe, to minimise the impact on water supplies to customers in the area.

"Whilst we repair the damaged pipe, we will be using our water-on-wheels tankers to help maintain water supplies by pumping additional water into the network.

"We've not received any reports of no water in the area, but as a precaution we're asking home owners in L26/L27 and L24 postcodes to store a small amount of water, just in case their supply does go off temporarily during the work we need to carry out this evening."

He told the Press Association that up to 4,000 homes could be affected if the water supply is impacted and that "hopefully it will be quite a quick repair".