A HUGE power cut has left hundreds of homes in Bolton in the dark tonight.

Electricity North West (ENW) say damage to their equipment is responsible for the outage, which is set to leave some without power until 4.30am tomorrow.

The power is reported to have been down since about 6.15pm, with ENW reporting a high-voltage fault to be affecting the region.

Dozens of homes in Little Lever and Breightmet are reportedly without power, as well as some addresses in Harwood, Great Lever and Ainsworth.

Vast swathes of Bury and parts of Ramsbottom have also been affected, with the power expected to be out there until 5am tomorrow.

Some homes are expected to have power restored by about 10.30pm but the fault is not expected to be rectified completely until 4.30am. 

Other homes have reported power being off for a short period, before being restored in less than half an hour.

A spokesman for Electricity North West said: "We have a high-voltage fault affecting Manchester.

"This fault is due to damage to our equipment.

"Our engineers are aware of the problem. Our team is now on site and working to restore supply.

"Our estimated time for restoration is 4.30am on Tuesday.

"We apologise for the inconvenience caused by the interruption and our engineers will work to restore power as soon as possible."