Engineers spent a day trying to restore normal water supplies to more than 23,000 properties after a burst main forced the residents of 18 houses to evacuate due to flooding.

The disruption forced people to leave as their gardens and cars were damaged by water coming into their homes in Bearsden, East Dunbartonshire, yesterday. It also left the houses and many other homes and businesses in the area without supplies.

The disruption extended into Glasgow, with properties affected by problems in Maryhill, Summerston and Kelvindale.

By last night Scottish Water engineers had restored supplies to all the properties following the problems caused by a burst 3ft-wide main on Maryhill Road at Canniesburn Toll.

Motorists were warned the repair work is likely to cause disruption to traffic over the coming days.

Tom and Margaret Malcolm, both 54, of Cluny Drive, which was among the worst affected by flooding said water rushed into their property at about 5am.

The couple, who have lived in the street for 19 years, said their two cars had been severely damaged along with their garden and the ground floor.

Mrs Malcolm said: "I just thought it would stop, but it didn't. It kept coming in."

Mr Malcolm added: "The house is totally flooded. We're gutted. We have been in touch with our insurance company and we can't live in the house, so we'll have to get a hotel, in the long term we'll have to move to rented accommodation.

"It could be six months before we can get back into the house.

"The main thing is we're all safe but I'm sure, come Wednesday, when I start to wake up from sleeping in a hotel I'll be thinking 'why?'"

The incident rekindled memories of a burst water main in the same place in September 1986.

Then, thousands of gallons of water cascaded down into the homes and gardens of Cluny Drive, Cluny Avenue and Rannoch Drive.

Tom Henderson, 72, of Cluny Drive, said: "Scottish Water guaranteed us it wouldn't happen again. They have let us down badly.

"It was just as bad as this last time. The house at the bottom of the street was up to the roof with water and we had to go in and save them. We had two kids at school age last time and it was devastating for us.

Neighbour Lesley Coats, 47, said her disabled son was initially trapped in the house as her garden flooded.

"We just panicked and tried to move the car and motorbikes as quickly as possible, but the whole garden is completely ruined." she said.

"We can still leave the house as long as we have wellies on but my youngest son, who is in a wheelchair can't get out."

Firefighters and police worked to clear the area and salvage what they could from the scene.

Scottish Water engineers spent the day working re-zoning the network and whilst bringing supplies in from other areas.

By yesterday afternoon, 18,000 properties had normal supplies and engineers were working to restore the remaining 5000 affected properties, mainly in the Switchbank Road area of Bearsden, Summerston, north Glasgow, and a small number in Kelvindale.

A spokesman said there was no connection between the latest incident and the one in 1986. He added the cause of the burst will be investigated and said it could be down to deterioration of a section of pipe and ground conditions.