A MAJOR incident was declared at Southampton Hospital earlier today following a power cut.

The entire East Wing of Southampton General Hospital reportedly suffered a power failure, with A&E services, surgery theatres and the site's internet services all impacted.

The outage reportedly started around 6.30am today, leaving part of the hospital in complete darkness. Staff reportedly used torches to help move around the site.

University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, who run the hospital, said the power cut was caused by an electrical cable fault.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust said: “As the electrical cable fault which led to a power failure across the trust has been resolved, we have now resumed emergency and trauma surgery and power has been fully restored across Southampton General and the Princess Anne hospitals.

“Despite this affecting our emergency generator, we were able to keep our inpatients safe through battery back-up of vital equipment and their care remained unaffected throughout.

“However, as non-urgent operations and appointments scheduled for today were cancelled, some patients will now face delays in receiving their scheduled care with us but we aim to ensure they are rearranged as quickly as possible with prioritisation given based on clinical need.

“We would like to thank patients and relatives for their understanding and our partner organisations and neighbouring hospitals who provided excellent support to manage the increased pressures on our services.

“Above all we would like to say a special thanks to our staff who handled the situation calmly and with complete professionalism at all times to ensure our patients received the highest standards of care in difficult circumstances.”

Firefighters were also called to the hospital around 8.45am where they dealt with a related incident.

One person said earlier: "The place is in complete darkness.

"There are no lights and there is no power.

"The back-up generators haven't started and people are walking around with torches."

Another said: "There is a major incident going on at the Southampton General Hospital.

"There is no power and the back up generators have failed to start.

"There are hardly any lights on."