Dunmow was plunged into darkness when a power-cut spread along the High Street and North Dunmow an hour ago (December 8, 3.30pm).

Around 2000 properties have been affected, and all of the shops have been forced to close because they have no lights, no tills, and no way to take card payment.

Nicky Anthony, owner of Wardrobe, said that her lights flickered twice before the whole street went black.

She says shop alarms have been automatically set off in numerous stores – security systems think something is amiss because the power has been tampered with.

She said: “Hopefully it won’t be off that long but you never know. No-one can do anything, people can’t even see without the power.

“It must be quite major because I think it’s out all the way to Thaxted.

“If you go downstairs it’s pitch black, so we have got no changing rooms - I had to close.”

She heard it was caused by a problem with an underground cable.

UK Power Networks said they are on their way to fix the problem.

It said: “We would like to reassure our customers that we will be working hard to restore power as soon as we can and that we understand how difficult it is to be without power at this time of year and apologise for the inconvenience caused.”