Thousands of properties have had their water restored after four days.

More than 25,000 properties in St Leonards and Hastings which were cut off after Thursday night's burst water main in Keeper’s Wood have now had their supply restored.

Some 7,500 properties are still without.

In an update this afternoon, Southern Water said 6,000 are expected to be back on supply later today.

The water company warned however that the remaining 1,500 properties in parts of St Helen’s and St Helen’s Wood, which are normally served by the Fairlight reservoir, are “unlikely” to see supply restored until tomorrow morning or lunchtime because the reservoir is not yet sufficiently stocked to meet demand.

A spokesman said: “As areas are being brought back on to supply, Southern Water is redeploying its fleet of 24 tankers to support those areas still without supply. Our bottled water stations will remain open from 8am to 9pm and we will continue to deliver bottled water to customers on our priority services register until everyone is confirmed back in supply.

Read more: Water 'gradually' being restored to thousands of properties

“Efforts are under way to ensure supplies to enable all primary and secondary schools and colleges in the area to open as normal tomorrow.”

Bottle stations are at Asda and Tesco in St Leonards, Sea Road and Hastings Academy in Hastings

The company has warned that as supplies return people may notice their water is cloudy, discoloured and have reduced pressure and not to be alarmed.

People are advised to run their tap for a few minutes if their water is discoloured and it should clear. If this does not work, turn the tap off, wait 20 minutes and try again.

“Please be assured, our water treatment works has been operating normally and within specification since supplies were restored,” Southern Water said.

“Samples have been collected from our water treatment works and customer properties as these are brought back into supply to confirm the water quality meets the regulatory standard.

“Discoloured water from your taps is normal after a supply interruption such as the one we’ve seen recently. This is usually temporary and disappears once the network settles.”