UPDATE: Cause of power cut that left 411 homes and businesses without electricity is revealed

The company said an underground cable fault in Queen Street, in the town centre, sparked the power cut at around 12.30am today, though it said the majority of the 411 properties affected had their electricity restored quickly.

Power to the remaining 175 was restored at 10.52am, a spokeswoman said.

Engineers were called to Queen Street, which would have been busy with festive revellers at the time the fault developed, to fix the problem, she added.

They had originally hoped to get power back on by 1pm.

She was unable to say which specific streets the affected properties were on, though a live outage map showed an area encompassing parts of Talbot Road, Dickson Road, Cookson Street, and parts of North Shore.