Two Newtown schools were forced to send children home this afternoon after the water supply failed.

Pupils at Maesyrhandir CP and Ysgol Cedewain were sent home following a mains water problem in the Maesyrhandir area of Newtown which left the taps running dry at both sites and at nearby residential properties on Swallow Drive and Lon Maesycoed.

A statement from Severn Trent Water said: “We’re currently working to fix a burst pipe on Lon Maesycoed.  We’ve now turned the valves on either side of the broken pipe to stop the water flow through the broken part - this will allow us to fix the pipe safely. 

"Everyone outside of that should have their water back on, but there are a handful of properties right next to the burst pipe that will, unfortunately, have no water while we fix the pipe.  We’d like to say a huge apology to them – we know how difficult it is to have no water, but we hope that everything will be fixed and back to normal in the next few hours. 

"We’d also like to say thank you to anyone affected for their patience while we deal with this emergency.”

The schools were expected to open as normal tomorrow, but parents were advised to check the Powys County Council website at http://en.powys.gov.uk/schoolclosures for further updates.