More than 200 Bolton town centre businesses have been hit by a power cut today.

The problem has been caused by a fault in an underground cable.

Morrison's supermarket in the town centre has had to close with staff frantically trying to save as much food as possible.

Rail passengers have been forced to queue at Trinity Street station as workers switch to manual processing of tickets - a time-consuming task.

To make matters worse, electronic timetable boards are also out of action.

And the traffic lights on Trinity Street are off, with drivers confused over who has right of way and pedestrians taking their chances when crossing the road.

One observer said: "It's absolute chaos. I can't believe the police are not our controlling the traffic on the road and I only fear what it will be like come rush hour if this is not resolved."

Ninety-eight customers are still without power.

Thirty-eight companies had their power back by 10.45am, with a further 82 customers back on by 1pm.

Engineers are working to get the remaining businesses back to normal as soon as possible.

United Utilities'Christian Ewen said: "We received a report at approximately 9.40am today that Bolton town centre (Newport Street, Coronation Street and Great Moor Street areas) had experienced a power cut.

"Our engineers have discovered that an underground cable fault has caused the power cut.

"They are working as quickly as they can to resolve the problem. "We expect everyone to be back on by 5pm.

"We apologise for any inconvenience caused."