Thousands of homes and businesses were left without power yesterday in a Lanarkshire town after a fire caused severe damage to its main electricity sub-station.

Power to almost all of Coatbridge was lost just after midday, leaving 13,000 homes, businesses and schools without electricity.

Last night, 2000 homes were still without power as 50 ScottishPower engineers worked in teams to repair the damage.

Earlier, the Asda and Tesco superstores in the town were among businesses hit, although it is understood they continued trading a short time later by using emergency generators.

ScottishPower said it had to use "innovative methods" to restore power to many of its customers throughout the day because of the damage caused to the sub-station - the main source for the supply of electricity to that area.

A spokesman said 10,000 customers had power restored by 2pm by "remote switching".

Large industrial genera- tors were moved in to supply power to three tower blocks last night. The spokesman said the vast majority of customers were expected to have power restored by breakfast-time today.

The alarm was raised just after midday when Strathclyde Fire and Rescue received a report of a fire in an electricity sub-station in Jackson Street.

A Fire and Rescue technical unit was also sent after asbestos was discovered in the sub-station.

Kenny McNamee, emergency planning officer for North Lanarkshire Council, said: "Housing and social work services staff have been out visiting vulnerable people in the area throughout the day supplying them with food, soup, hot water and torches."

A ScottishPower spokesman said an investigation had begun to establish the cause of the blaze.

He said initial findings indicated a faulty component in the sub-station may be to blame, but nothing was ruled out, including the possibility it could have been started by vandals.