Hundreds of homes in Mid Sussex were today blacked out after lightning struck a telegraph pole early this morning.

Almost 600 householders woke up to discover their electricity was off just after 7am when the bolt of lightning hit the pole in the Foxhill Village area of the town.

But within half an hour, Seeboard had managed to restore power to the majority of homes.

Many people were woken by the heavy storm which caused some minor flooding in the area.

Jayne Salter, a resident from Foxhill, said: "I was up and about and I heard this big bang, then all the lights went out.

"I didn't realise how close the lightning was. But Seeboard seemed to be on the case really quickly and got it fixed within an hour."

Firefighters in two engines from Haywards Heath and one from Burgess Hill attended the scene but did not consider it safe to put out the fire, which quickly burnt itself out.

Water from a burst main flooded the road and a house in Wordsworth Close, Horsham, to a depth of up to 6in this morning. Firefighters from two engines pumped away the water.

More than three-quarters of an inch of rain fell in three hours, flooding roads and making driving treacherous across Sussex.

A Sussex Police spokesman said: "Amazingly, we have not received many accident reports. Everyone seems to be driving sensibly through the floods."

Parts of Carden Avenue and Lewes Road in Brighton were flooded and fountains of water rose from overflowing drains.

West Sussex Fire Brigade received six flooding calls in 10 minutes, mainly in the Shoreham/Lancing/Worthing area.

One elderly woman in Old Shoreham Road, Hove, called the East Sussex brigade when flood water surrounded her home.

A spokesman said: "She got worried the water was going to sweep into her home but there was no real danger."

Weathermen warned more heavy showers were on the way but the sun is expected to return by the weekend.

In West Sussex, traffic slowed to a crawl along parts of main roads between Littlehampton, Worthing and Lancing as giant puddles of standing water formed across the roads and along verges.

The busy A27 between Worthing and Lancing was one of the worst-hit areas, leading to tailbacks of more than a mile as drivers slowed to negotiate the puddles that in some locations were inches deep.

West Sussex fire crews said there had been no major flooding problems in the area but were warning shopkeepers and houseowners susceptible to flooding to be on their guard as more heavy rain was predicted.