A burst Thames Water main in Molesey, Surrey, disrupted water supplies across seven boroughs in London and Surrey, forcing schools and nurseries to close and flooding a nearby recreation ground. The outage affected thousands of homes, prompting residents to seek bottled water and the company to apologise and send a specialist team to repair the leak.

The pipe was reportedly losing 750 litres of water a second; at about 6pm, around 5,500 properties were still affected, down from 15,000 initially. Thames Water said it would open a bottled-water station in Molesey. The incident drew criticism from local MPs and renewed scrutiny of the company, which the article says has £19.5 billion in debt and loses hundreds of millions of litres daily through leaks.