A BURST water main that left thirsty Droitwich residents without water on one of the hottest days of the year has now been repaired.

People leaving in the WR9 postcode area lost water at 7.30am after a water main in Kidderminster Road burst on Wednesday, just before temperatures rose to 30C.

Frustrated residents hit out at Severn Trent Water (STW) for the situation as bottled water ran out at Spa shops, and Westlands First School was also forced to send children home because of the problem.

STW staff discovered the burst was in a "tricky position" after digging two metres down to the pipe and finding the pipe encased in concrete.

Emergency water tankers had to be brought in, with water injected directly to the system, as a temporary fix to restore water to residents while repairs were carried out.

A spokesman for STW said the pipe repair continued throughout Thursday, and was completed at 11pm that night.

"After the repair, we had to wait for the concrete to dry," the spokesman said.

"The residents would have had water throughout, through the tankers.

"Everything should now be back to normal."

After receiving numerous complaints from upset residents STW apologised for the problem, and for a lack of communication during the water supply loss - blaming this on a problem with text messages caused by a "systems failure".