Residents across Solihull and south Birmingham have described a sudden power cut that left some without mobile phone service as well as electricity.
Reports began emerging on Monday evening, with people in Shirley, Acocks Green, Hall Green, Sparkhill, Kings Heath, Billesley and surrounding areas reporting interruptions.
In Shirley, residents said the power was off for between a few minutes and around 10 minutes.
But for some, the disruption continued after their electricity returned.
One resident in Shirley said the electricity went off for around 10 minutes and that mobile data also stopped working. They said the power returned before their mobile connection did and that they were temporarily unable to make a phone call.
A resident in Warstock also reported that their phone signal disappeared, while someone in Acocks Green said the outage lasted around 10 minutes and that people were outside because there was no phone signal, with hundreds of alarms also sounding.
The reports indicate the outage covered a wide area, although the precise number of properties affected has not been confirmed. Residents reported outages ranging from around 30 seconds in parts of Kings Heath and Sparkhill to several minutes in Shirley, Billesley and Hollywood.
There were also reports of lights flickering in areas where the electricity did not appear to completely cut out.
The reason for Monday evening’s outage has not yet been established.
The reports of mobile phone disruption are particularly notable because they meant some residents were temporarily unable to use their phones to make calls or access mobile data at the same time as the electricity outage.
National Grid Electricity Distribution operates the electricity distribution network across the Midlands. Its power-cut service allows customers to check outages and report problems.
