Water company sunk by burst pipe

Systems engineers at Severn Trent are working to recover company data after a plumbing catastrophe at the water company's head office in Birmingham caused extensive damage.

IT staff were called in at around 2pm Sunday. Our source says the offending pipe was on the seventh floor.

Severn Trent confirmed the ironic misfortune today: "A burst in a water pipe has caused sufficient damage to close our headquarters in Birmingham. There should be no effect on any service to our customers and staff based at our Coventry Road building who are working at other locations."

The repairs are set to take several days.®