THE father of a five-day-old daughter told how ‘panic buying’ of bottled water broke out after thousands of homes were left without water.

Luke Stratford, who lives at Huddersfield Road, near Shelley Village Hall, said he alerted Yorkshire Water at 12.30pm on Thursday after hopping in the shower only to find there was no water.

It turned out there was a major mains burst which left 5,000 properties including businesses without water in the Shepley, Kirkburton, Shelley and Lepton areas.

Mr Stratford, a 32-year-old area sales manager, said he had bought some bottled water from a supermarket but later found there had been panic buying as engineers battled to repair the damage.

He said: “There was panic buying and no water on shop shelves. I live near the village hall and there must have been 30 to 40 people standing outside waiting for supplies to arrive at one point.

“Some people have complained about Yorkshire Water, but they kept me in the loop.”

The Farmer’s Boy pub gave him several bottles of water and eventually supplies of bottled water from Yorkshire Water began appearing at designated outlets.

Ian Littlewood, a married father-of-two from Joss Lane, Shepley , said he had begun yesterday without any water.

He said: “My two girls were moaning this morning as they have had to go to school without being able to brush their teeth.

“The problems started on Thursday night. We had water but it was brown and not drinkable.

“But I’ve checked with my brother this morning who lives in Shelley and he now has water so some places do have it.”

The problems occurred following a 12-inch main burst at the junction of Abbey Road and Penistone Road, Shepley.

Yorkshire Water managed to get many of the properties back on supply on Thursday night, but there were still some problems in certain areas yesterday.

Many residents have reported cloudy or dirty water after getting back on supply.

And Catherine Walter of Ashes Lane, Almondbury, near Castle Hill, said she had also suffered problems suggesting the difficulties ran further than the HD8 postcode area.

Some residents complained that when attending water distribution centres announced by Yorkshire Water, there was actually no bottled water there .

A Yorkshire Water spokesman said: “In the initial stages of the incident the locations of the water depots was given out prior to supplies actually arriving.

“This meant that people were arriving at the sites before supplies were delivered.

“We do acknowledge that it took longer for supplies to be delivered to the depots than originally anticipated and we apologise to our customers for the inconvenience”.