Hundreds left homeless after thieves steal electrics from Bradford tower block

Hundreds of people have been forced to leave their homes after thieves stole power cables supplying a tower block.

More than 200 people were told to leave the City Exchange building in Bradford after 40m of cables went missing from the basement.

A prohibition notice has been served by West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, preventing people from returning until it is safe.

Many are now facing the prospect of having to pay thousands of pounds for hotel accommodation.

Tenants Adam and Suzanne Butler are among those who have had to leave. Suzanne said: "It's scary because we don't know what's going to happen now. We've got jobs we need to commute to."

The incident happened on Tuesday night. Within 24 hours residents had been asked to move out.

Firefighter Chris Kovacs said: "Quite clearly it's dangerous in terms of working with electricity but [also] in terms of the residents of being left without power, without utilities and being able to look after themselves and their own welfare... and then the protection within the building – whether that's fire alarms, sprinklers and anything that would alert them to a fire and help them to get out safely – has been taken."

The basement was broken into by thieves.

The theft comes months after some residents had to leave because of a major water leak.

Tenant Robin Glasson said he had already faced hotel bills after that incident.

"It's really putting my bank account to a point where I'm wondering how I can afford food, how I'll continue to pay these hotel bills - how I'm going to get to work," he said.

This isn't a problem that will go away overnight though - with estimates that it could be up to two weeks before the building is made safe.

Property management company MLM said it had recently installed extra security measures, including padlocks on doors.

It said residents could expect insurance payouts soon. Bradford Council said officers had been in contact with tenants to help them find alternative accommodation and said an out-of-hours housing service was available.

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