UPDATED: South Mainland schools to close due to power cuts

Sandwick junior high and Dunrosness primary schools will be closing early today (Monday) after a widespread power outage in the South Mainland.

The schools have been left without heating and communications because of the outages.

Buses will collect pupils from Sandwick as soon as possible, and from Dunrossness at 2.30pm.

Parents of pupils not travelling on school buses are asked to collect them as soon as possible. School staff will ensure all children are safe and looked after until they can be collected.

That came after homes in the South Mainland were left without power due to “adverse weather conditions”, with almost 1,500 customers affected.

SSE said on its Power Track that Storm Isha caused “strong wind speeds” which they believe is the reason for the South Mainland outage.

The energy company added that engineers have been “out since first light” to assess and start repairs to their network.

However there are a “large volume of faults” presently being responded to.

An SSE engineer is currently on site with the outage spanning from Cunningsburgh to Sumburgh.

SSE HAS been approached for comment.