Emergency services tackle Sunderland explosion

The small explosion took place as a result of an electricity surge underneath a footpath in St Luke's Terrace, in the Pallion area of the city.

Luckily, no-one was injured.

Police, fire officers and Northern Power Grid workers were at the scene to deal with the incident.

There was an interruption to power for almost 2,000 customers, with power restored by 1pm.

A police cordon was put in place outside Anthony James Property, in St Luke's Terrace.

Some shops on the other side of the road had also reported a loss of power.

A Northumbria Police spokesman said: “At about 11.50am this morning, police received reports of a small underground fire on St Luke's Terrace in the Pallion area of Sunderland.

“Police attended along with colleagues from Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service and found there had been a small explosion underneath a footpath in the area.

“A cordon has been put in place but nobody was injured, and the fire service are now carrying out inquiries along with colleagues from the Northern Power Grid.”

A Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said: “There was an electricity surge at the sub-station on St Luke's Terrace.

“We are there along with police and colleagues from the Northern Power Grid.”

A spokeswoman for Northern Power Grid said: “We restored power by switching power through alternative routes on our network with 1,127 of our customers back on at 12.51 pm and the remaining 802 customers back on at 1.02 pm.

“We’d like to thank our customers for their patience whilst we worked to get their lights back on and reassure them that faults like this are not a common occurrence.”