Nearly 14,000 homes across Suffolk were left without power in the wake of high winds brought by Storm Eunice.

UK Power Networks, which maintains electricity cables in the county, said the 13,900 properties were among 54,700 in the East of England which had no electricity after winds of up to 80mph ripped through the region.

In neighbouring Essex there were 21,100 homes with no power while in Norfolk there were 5,800.

The utility provider says its engineers have already restored connections to over a quarter of a million properties following outages caused by the storm.

Homes in Debenham, Martlesham, Bury St Edmunds, Sudbury and Felixstowe were among those experiencing power cuts.

The winds, which were officially clocked at 71mph in Wattisham, felled trees which blocked roads and brought down power lines.

A statement from UK Power Networks said: "Power supplies have been affected by Storm Eunice, with winds up to 78mph causing damage to our electricity networks across parts of the South East and East of England.

"We understand how difficult it is to be without electricity and we prepared with extra teams on duty. Our linesmen are ready to start repairing damaged lines when the wind subsides to a safe level, and we will restore as many power supplies as possible by remote control.

"If you see an overhead line down, please keep well clear and call our emergency power cut helpline on 105."

In one of the first power cuts of the day, more than 200 homes in Newmarket lost electricity just after 10am.

Shortly afterwards, falling branches brought down power cables over the B1063 in Clare and 147 properties in Glemsford, near Sudbury, went dark.

In Mildenhall, police were called and Folly Road was closed at the junction with Finchley Road after a tree slashed down live cables just after noon.

Nationally around 190,000 people were without power as of lunchtime, according to the Energy Networks Association, with the vast majority of them in the south west of England.