A small explosion from underneath the pavement in Avon Street in Bath has resulted in a fire outside a city centre shop.
The sound of a loud bang and a "fizzing" noise was heard at around 8.20am and onlookers saw the force of the explosion had lifted one of the manhole covers.
Luckily no-one was walking on that section of pavement at the time and nobody has been injured.
It happened outside the Sally hair and beauty shop on the corner with James Street West and smoke and flames could be seen coming from underground.
Once the fire was extinguished, engineers were called in to fix the electrical cable and have dug up a large section of pavement.
They have been on scene since late morning.
BID rangers and City of Bath College security staff were first to arrive just before 8.30am.
The fire brigade cordoned off part of Avon Street and police community support officers directed traffic around the closure.
The fire was caused by an underground electrical fault.
An Avon Fire and Rescue spokesman said firefighters had used a CO2 extinguisher on the flames.
There was a minor incident when a passing bus collided with the side of one of the fire engines, while trying to get past the closure.
It then drove off without stopping.
However, the Avon Fire and Rescue spokesman said this had not caused any problems.
A Western Power Distribution spokeswoman said the fire had meant seven customers had lost power.
She said: "It was caused by an underground cable fault and the scale of the loud bang was because it happened in an enclosed space.
"Once the fire brigade have finished at the scene our engineers will work on repairing the fault and we hope to have the seven customers reconnected by the end of the morning."
One of the businesses affected by the loss of power was the Tesco Express in Avon Street.
Avon Fire and Rescue have now left the scene and engineers are on site digging up the pavement to access the cable and fix the fault.
