Families had to make do with turkey sandwiches for Christmas dinner due to frequent power cuts since Christmas eve.

Villagers in Shipdham near Swaffham are currently experiencing their fourth power cut since Christmas Eve, with resident Alison Barley saying that the power first went off on Christmas even before returning briefly in the morning before going off again from 1pm in the afternoon until 5pm in the night.

Ms Barley said the power returned again on Christmas Day for half an hour from 5:30pm before going off again.

She said a generator was then put in by UK Power Networks, however the power had gone off for a fourth time after the generator ran out of petrol.

She added that there had been regular issues in the village due to an underlying cable which required maintenance near the Thomas Bullock school.

She said: "It's been a bit of a rubbish Christmas to be honest. Luck would have it we got the turkey cooked overnight but most of the people round here are electric only so they've had to have turkey sandwiches for their Christmas dinner.

"We've had so many power cuts around here this year it has been ridiculous, we've been one of the lucky ones in that we've got our turkey cooked but there's some people round here who've had nothing, older people who have no heating, no dinner and they live on their own.

"Someone from UK Power Networks rang me this morning, however they said they don't expect the cable itself to be fixed until the new year."

UK Power Networks confirmed that more than three households had been affected and said it had received 29 calls regarding the outage, and hoped to return power to affected households by 5pm.

A statement on UK Power Networks website read: "A fault occurred on a piece of our electrical equipment which controls the power to your home."

A UK Power Networks spokeswoman said: "We would like to apologise for recent problems following a fault on an underground cable yesterday that led to a power cut. Our engineers worked quickly and safely to restore all power supplies.

"Today 46 customers are being supplied by a generator, which needs refuelling by our contractor and is expected to be running by 5pm.

"We would like to apologise for this inconvenience during the festive period. Our staff are working 24/7 to keep the power flowing and deal with any incidents that occur."