Shops in Strand Street, Douglas, were forced to stay closed over the weekend after a power cut.

Manx Utilities began trying to fix the problem at about 10.30am on Saturday and staff were still working on a solution 12 hours later, with one shop still without power after 11pm.

The affected shops were Thomas Cook, Boots Opticians, Spar, Hospice, Specsavers, Thorntons, Manx Telecom, Charles Alexandra and Sure, which was the last to have power restored.

The chairman of the MUA, Dr Alex Allinson MHK, apologised to the shoppers and businesses affected by the power cut.

Dr Allinson said: ‘At this moment we are unaware of the cause for this but prompt action by one of our teams has restored power now to the businesses affected.

‘There is a network of cables along Strand Street and some are old and occasionally give rise to intermittent faults.

‘On this occasion the line fault had to be identified and physically fixed.

‘I would like to apologise to anyone inconvenienced by this temporary loss of power.

‘Manx Utilities is working closely with the Department of Infrastructure on the Douglas Promenade scheme.

‘Part of this will be updating some of our infrastructure such as water mains, electricity cables and sub-stations along the length of the prom.

‘We hope this significant investment will further improve the reliability of the supply to one of the busiest streets in our capital.’

However, a man who works in the street told the Examiner that a similar power outage had affected stores the weekend before and during the week, although in both instances it had been only for short periods.