Power has been restored to over 8,000 homes and businesses following damage caused to the electricity network by the severe gales, in the early hours of Monday morning.

More than 400 incidences of damage, resulted in electricity supplies to around 8,000 customers being disrupted.

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Around 5,000 customers were restored overnight and Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) emergency crews, engineers, call handlers and other staff were mobilised at first light to assess the damage and start the repair process.

Julia Carson, NIE Communications Manager, said: "NIE's incident centres across Counties Down, Armagh and Antrim were escalated from early on Monday with NIE engineers and emergency crews in the right place to get on with the restoration work as quickly as was practical."

(CD/JP)