Hundreds of homes were plunged into darkness during a power cut overnight.

Initially, Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) reported that 766 properties in West Swindon and Royal Wootton Bassett had been affected by the loss of power at 10.40pm on Thursday evening. 

Thee following morning, the situation had improved as the area affected had been further isolated, but as of 9am, 20 households were still powerless and will likely remain that way until midday. 

SSEN first thought the issue might be related to their underground network but the power company has since clarified that it has been caused by a fault in the overground network. 

An engineer is currently on site and trying to fix it. 

Swindon Advertiser: West Swindon and Royal Wootton Bassett hit by power cut on Thursday nightWest Swindon and Royal Wootton Bassett hit by power cut on Thursday night (Image: SSEN)The fault was first reported on Thursday evening, with a spokesperson for SSEN offering an apology. 

"We're very sorry for the power cut and are aware of a fault on our main network affecting 766 homes. This is affecting a large area and it's likely several streets in your area are affected by the same outage. 

"Our engineers in your local area are working hard to get your power restored as soon as possible. At this stage, based on initial investigations, we're aiming to restore your power by 4am April 12."

They added that the cause of the power 'was a fault on our underground network'. 

59 postcodes were affected, mostly in the SN15 and SN4 area. 

Swindon Advertiser: The updated power cut situation on Friday morningThe updated power cut situation on Friday morning (Image: SSEN)But by 7am the following morning, things had changed significantly. Only 20 homes were still without electricity and these were mostly in the SN6 and SN4 postcodes. 

"We have engineers on the way and they were due to arrive in your local area at 7am. Once they arrive they will get straight to work on investigating the fault and attempt to restore power," the spokesperson said. 

"The cause of this power cut is a fault in our overhead network. This is the most common type of fault we see and our teams are very experienced in dealing with these issues. 

"In most cases, our engineers are able to restore power by simply replacing a fuse at the local substation, however, if the fault is severe, this may result in us needing to make full repairs which can take longer."

SSEN indicates that it hopes to have the situation fully resolved by 12 noon at the earliest.