A VILLAGE primary school was closed and more than a dozen homes left without power after thieves risked their lives to steal 1,000 metres of live power cables from farm land.

Electricity North West (ENW) engineers were called to the field at Crosscrake Farm, Stainton, early this morning after residents from 15 properties woke up to the power outage.

They said the thieves ‘could have killed themselves and left a very dangerous situation’ by cutting through the five 240v lines.

Around 90 pupils at the nearby Crosscrake Primary School had to be sent home on their first morning back at school after the Easter holidays.

Headteacher Linda Fletcher said it was ‘incredibly frustrating’.

“We first noticed this morning when staff came in but thought it was just something wrong with our own system,” she said.

“One of our pupil’s parents is an electrician and offered to have a look. That’s when we saw all the cable cut down across the road.

“I am very cross. It was just seeing the children’s really disappointed faces when we said ‘sorry, you can’t stay’.

“Everything is now set back by a day for us. Originally we thought it would just be for an hour or so and we could hang on, but after hearing it would be a few hours we thought it best to send the children home. It was so cold after the heating had been off for a fortnight already.”

The thieves cut their way into the field, which contained livestock, through a thick hedge before scaling four 10-metre-high wooden poles to cut the cables.

Trailing live wires were left dangling from the poles while one coil of wire, apparently missed by the thieves, was discarded on the ground.

Farmer Robert Sutton who owns the land on which the poles stand said: “I was watching golf until 11.30pm last night and it was still on then, but not when we got up this morning.

“I have farmed here for 31 years and nothing like this has happened before. They must have parked up at the primary school and then come through the hedge away from the farm.”

He said he was also concerned that one of his sheep was missing. “I can’t find one of them and I’m worried they have taken it for meat,” he said.

Power was restored to the properties by 3.30pm after engineers worked at the site from 8.30am.

Jane Fleetwood, response manager for ENW, said the cost of replacing the cables was £3,500.

“We take metal theft very seriously and attempting to steal from the electricity network is incredibly dangerous,” she said. “Danger of death signs are on our equipment for a reason.

“Not only is this an incredibly dangerous crime, but it causes thousands of pounds worth of damage and affects livelihoods and particularly vulnerable people, including the elderly, who may live on their own.

“It is important that we all work together to put a stop to these crimes. We are urging people if you do hear or see anything, or your electricity goes off in the middle of the night, please ring us on 0800 195 4141 so we can investigate immediately.”

A spokesman for Cumbria Police said officers were speaking to residents to see if they had seen anything suspicious overnight.

Anyone with information should contact them on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.