More than 2,500 people lost their electricity supply during a power cut.

Shops were thrown into chaos when they lost power shortly after 3.20pm yesterday.

The cut hit the London Road retail area of Brighton and reached up to Park Crescent, off Lewes Road.

Some London Road shops were forced into virtual shut down for up to an hour and power did not return to some places for up to four hours.

Somerfield, Co-op and Boots all had to ask customers to leave and hope light and electricity would return before their food stock was ruined.

Stacey Hobden, 19 a checkout girl at Co-op, said: "We had to get rid of all the customers. The tills go down and last time we had a power cut we were adding everything up on calculators.

"This time there were too many customers to do that so we had to ask them to leave."

Sue Reed, 26, a dispenser at Boots, said: "We had to get everyone out. I think it's for health and safety reasons."

Traffic lights at the major Ditchling Road crossroads and further down the road also went off, causing chaos for drivers and pedestrians.

Jamie Tighe, a barman at the Bat and Ball pub on Ditchling Road, said: "You could see people waiting for ages to cross the road. They didn't know when it was safe to cross. It must have been far more dangerous up at the junction."

Dave Hayes, acting manager of the London Road Sainsburys, said: "Luckily we weren't affected so all the customers were coming to us but shops that were hit may have lost a lot of money."

One shopkeeper put up candles in his shop and made £100 during the 46 minutes his supply was out. Tony Haider, 42, of The Shop on the Level newsagents on Ditchling Road, served 48 customers in semi-darkness as dusk approached.

It is the second time in two months that businesses in the area have been hit by a blackout. This time the cut has been attributed to a fault on the high voltage network.

Niamh Arnett, a press officer for EDF energy, said: "The last affected areas had power restored to them at approximately 7pm.

"Our engineers have isolated the fault and further work is being carried out. We apologise for any inconvenience caused."