A CITY centre street was closed today as an electricity fault caused explosions and sent a stream of sparks flying across a road.

Castlegate was fenced off in heavy rain at 9.40am after a cable began sparking within a lamppost attached to buildings.

Firefighters guided shoppers from the area, while stores Past Times and Jespers and creche Smartypants were closed off. Electricity engineers from NEDL cut off electricity before starting work to repair the fault.

Myra Adamson, manager of stationery shop Jespers, said: "It started at about 9am with sparks coming from outside.

"One person thought it was fireworks, but it wasn't. I was told it was a live wire from somewhere."

She said customers had been unable to get to the shop all day.

"We have been stuck in here," she said.

"I know it's very difficult because they've got to be very careful with electricity, but we have lost business," she said. "People have been ringing, wanting to collect things, and I've had to say I'll ring them back when they can get to the shop."

Meanwhile, 3,000 customers were cut off in the Heslington and Fulford areas.

A spokesman for NEDL said: "At 9.40am a faulty 11,000-volt cable cut power to 3,000 people. All were back on within one hour and 24 minutes.

"At the same time, we had reports of a sparking cable in a lamppost in Castlegate and work is ongoing there.

Updated: 14:58 Thursday, October 18, 2001