07 May 2008 13:15 Engineers forced to abandon work after airgun attack

An engineer working for Central Networks, the electricity distribution company for central England, was forced to abandon work to restore power to homes in Gloucester when he was shot with an airgun.

Luckily the engineer did not suffer any serious injury, but he was left with a cut neck after being hit by the air rifle pellet on Sunday morning.

A Central Networks team was working to restore power to 1,139 customers at about 9.30 on Sunday morning (May 4^th) after a fault on the overhead line in the Bixhead area of Gloucester.

More than 930 customers had their power supply restored before 10.30, when engineers were forced to abandon work for their own safety. The delay meant the remaining homes and businesses had power reconnected five hours later.

Phil Wilson, Customer Operations Manager with Central Networks, said:"We work day and night and in all weathers to keep people's lights on and keep their homes warm but when we're faced with something like this our engineers have to put their own safety first.

"I can't believe that anyone could be so stupid; not only could this person have left someone with very serious injuries, they also succeeded in prolonging a power cut for their neighbours.

"We can only apologise for the inconvenience to those people left without power and I hope they understand why we had to take the action we did."

A 24-year-old local man was later given a caution for assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Ends

Notes to editors:

• Central Networks brings power to 4.9 million customers across central England through 133,000km of underground and overhead cables and via almost 97,000 substations;
• Central Networks covers an area from the Peak District in the north to parts of Bristol in the south, and from the Welsh Borders to the Lincolnshire Coast.

For further information contact: