SOUTHERN WATER has apologised after a power cut caused a polluting incident that is thought to have contributed to the deaths of 'more than 100 fish'.

New Forest District Council urged visitors and residents to not bathe at Milford on Sea on August 16.

Eels and trout are among the many dead fish strewn across the beach.

Residents were enraged by the situation.

Sue Francis said: “I think it’s disgraceful and It's really worrying because the birds would eat those fish or it could kill the birds or more fish in there.”

A spokesperson for Southern Water said: "We're extremely sorry for this incident which occurred due to an electrical fault that impacted our pumping station near Peter's Lane in the New Forest.

“Our teams are continuing to work around-the-clock to minimise the environmental impact and restore water quality.

"We're sorry to confirm that regrettably, this has led to a number of dead fish at the watercourse.

"Incidents like this shouldn't happen, and we're carrying out a full investigation to understand why this happened and how we can make operational changes to prevent this from happening in the future."

An Environment Agency spokesperson said: “We were notified about a serious pollution spill into Danes Stream 

“We have advised our partners and posted information to the Swimfo website.”

 “Our investigations into the cause of the spill are continuing and we’d urge anyone who spots pollution to phone our Incident Hotline on 0800 80 70 60.”

Cllr Dan Poole, NFDC portfolio holder for community, safety, and wellbeing, said: "While we are not the regulatory authority, we worked with the Environment Agency to raise public awareness of this issue.

"The Environment Agency has informed us this morning (Monday 19 August) that the signs can be removed at Milford on Sea and Keyhaven and their website has been updated.

"We share concerns over the potential impact this incident may have on our unique local environment, and we understand the importance of our coastline, especially during the summer holidays and with the current favourable weather.

"We will be asking Southern Water for their assurances that there will not be a repeat of this issue and that they are planning measures to address what weaknesses in the system caused this to occur."