HUNDREDS of gallons of water turned part of Haydon Wick into a lake - just seven months after downpours left people homeless.

But the water that gushed out of a hole in Thames Avenue had nothing to do with Mother Nature.

It was caused by a burst water main and came four days after residents first reported a problem.

A leak had been trickling steadily across the road and into nearby Wicks Close since work was carried out to clean the drains.

Residents said the pressure of the water had become stronger every day, until yesterday it became a torrent.

Michael and Micheline Thrush's house became an island after the water started gushing at around 7.30am yesterday.

Michael said: "We were affected by the flooding last summer but this is completely different.

"This is a man-made problem, and could have been prevented.

"There's been a leakage out there since Thursday and other people have told me they rang the water board and reported the problem.

"Obviously somebody knew because they put a sign up warning about this stretch of road being icy. This was an accident waiting to happen."

Micheline described what she saw when she opened her curtains yesterday morning.

She said: "I'd heard a gurgling noise and I wondered what it was, so I got up to have a look.

"The water was just gushing out and I said oh God, we're being flooded'."

Luckily the fire service arrived in time to prevent the water from entering houses, although garages and gardens of three properties, including that of Mr and Mrs Thrush, were damaged.

Unfortunately in their eagerness to help the stricken residents, one fire crew became wedged in the front garden of John and Paula Clay.

Despite the damage to their lawn, the couple praised the rapid response of the fire service.

John said: "I would say they arrived in about 20 minutes. I don't know when Thames Water turned up but I couldn't see one of their vans out there initially.

"Nobody got hurt and nothing was seriously damaged so I'm more disappointed than anything else. Why wasn't the problem sorted out earlier?"

Another resident, Keith Goole, said he called Thames Water as soon as he saw the flooding at 7.30am.

"I tried to report what was happening, but I was stuck on hold for 10 or 15 minutes."

Thames Water said they were not alerted to the problem until 8am, and worked quickly to resolve the problem. Initially 50 people were without water because of the burst main, but the number was later reduced to 10.

All residents are now reported to have running water again, after the mains was repaired at 2pm.