WATER supplies to homes across southern Swindon dried up yesterday, after workmen allowed air bubbles to disrupt the system.

Staff from Thames Water were working on a pipe at a development site on Thursday morning and trapped air bubbles into a sealed mains pipe by accident.

By 7am the company was receiving complaints from residents who were getting no water. Other customers complained they were getting white water' through their taps. By 3pm the company had received more than 460 complaints about supplies.

During the course of the day engineers worked to get the trapped air out of the system and many homes had supplies restored to normal by lunchtime.

Any lingering problems with water colour or pressure could be resolved by letting one tap run for a few minutes, a Thames Water spokesman said.

"We want to apologise to all of our customers for the inconvenience," said the spokesman.