THOUSANDS of people in Pontypool woke up to no water today as engineers from Welsh Water battled to locate a burst water main.

Around 2,500 households in Pontymoile, New Inn, Glascoed and Mamhilad lost their water supply following the incident at around 6.30am.

Welsh Water said this morning it had no idea where the burst was and, as it would be several feet below ground level, it would take several hours to find and repair.

A spokesman said: "At present, we don't know what has caused it or where it is, but we have workers up there trying to locate it. It is a large area to search, but we are doing everything we can to get the water back on as quickly as we can. We apologise to customers for the inconvenience."

Fred Marshall, of Clairwain, New Inn, said: "When something like this happens, it does affect you. We managed to squeeze enough water out for a cup of tea this morning, but that was it. If it goes on until the afternoon, which it may well do if it's a burst water main, we will have to go out and buy bottled water."

He added: "We've had the water go off before, of course, but never like this. It would be nice to know what's going on, but I suppose when it's an emergency, they can't do a lot."

Barrie Ford, of Prince's Walk, New Inn, said: "My wife Helen got up at 6am to go to work and had to get what cold water she could out of the tap and boil it so she could have a wash. She couldn't have a shower."