The incident happened at 23:10 and NIE emergency crews responded immediately, arriving on site to assess the damage and get customers back on supply. Power was restored to all customers by 01.30.
Roy Coulter, Director of Health and Safety at NIE said: "The evidence points to vandals interfering with electricity equipment causing loss of supply for many customers. This equipment is live at 11,000 volts so the risk of electrocution was extremely high. We cannot stress strongly enough the danger of this type of damage. Those involved should consider themselves lucky that they weren’t seriously injured or even killed.
I would ask all members of the local community to be extra vigilant and to report any damage to NIE apparatus on 08457 643 643. Our advice is clear – stay safe by staying away from electricity equipment.”