HOMES were flooded and streets turned into a river by a major water main burst in Shipley that took hours to control.

Residents said water erupted in Lynton Drive at about 5pm, cascading downhill until after 7pm, flooding through some people’s homes.

Others were able to protect their homes from the torrent only by taking desperate action, using bins and other material from their gardens to create temporary barricades.

Seema Ram said her brother Sukhviner, who lives on Castle Mews, had water cascading through has garage.

Others were not so lucky, with five homes in the path of the flood water getting swamped.

It also knocked out the electricity supply and telephone lines to some homes.

Ms Ram said there had been no help offered to residents by Yorkshire Water, stating: “Yorkshire Water seemed more bothered about getting traffic moving than helping people whose houses were flooded.”

The water had mostly stopped by 8.30 pm and Yorkshire Water said they were looking to restore water supplies to affected customers “as soon as possible”.

It was expected repair work would continue today.

Resident Sajad Hussain said there had been no appreciable help to residents from any authorities. Bradford Council had directed residents to Yorkshire Water and after saying they would send a team, they later said the team was there to work on the leak rather than help residents, Mr Hussain said