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No water in east London: Thousands left unable to wash hands

 (Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

Thousands of people in east London are without water or suffering low water pressure in their homes.

Customers in nine postcodes said not being able to wash their hands was a coronavirus risk.

Thames Water said engineers were investigating and would do everything they could to get supplies returned as quickly as possible.

The outage affected homes in postcodes E6, E7, E10, E11, E12, E13, E15, E16 and E20.

Some people started buying bottled water to wash their hands, and others complained they could not get through to Thames Water on the phone.

The water company posted a message on its website apologising for the interruption, adding: "We know how worrying and inconvenient this is.

“We are experiencing a high number of calls at the moment. Only call if it's an emergency. Rest assured, we're doing all we can to get the issue resolved.”

Some social-media users advised others to collect rainwater in buckets. Others offered to sell bottled water.