A burst water pipe has now been repaired after it sent water gushing above houses in Southminster yesterday.

The burst main, at the junction of King's Road and Dukes Avenue, sent the water about 20 feet in the air.

A spokesman from Essex and Suffolk Water said: “A suspected leak in this area was reported to us early this morning.

"Our technician attended the site and found a leak on a 4 inch water main.

"The main was left in operation to maintain supplies to 80 customers.

"At this time the leak was just bubbling out and the water was dispersing safely into the local drainage system.

"A crew was dispatched to carry out the repair.

"When they arrived the pipe had burst causing a considerable release.

"They shut the main down and carried out the repair within an hour and a half.

"We take repairing leaks from our network extremely seriously and would like to assure customers that we worked carry out the repair as quickly as possible.”