POLICE are searching for a thief who may have been seriously injured while trying to steal electrical cable.
Officers said they are "very concerned" for the well-being of someone who may be burned or suffering serious internal injuries, following an explosion in an electricity sub-station in Methil, Fife.
They believe the person could be seriously injured after trying to steal electrical cable at around 2am yesterday.
The thief tried to cut through a live mains cable which caused an explosion.
The power supply was cut and a number of houses and businesses also lost supply.
Inspector Donald Jenks, based at Levenmouth Police Station, said: "Investigations by ScottishPower have found that attempts had been made to cut through an 11,000 volt mains cable which subsequently shorted out causing an explosion and a failure of the supply.
"On examining the damage at the site of the incident, the Scottish Power engineer fully expected to find the person responsible to have been electrocuted.
"Police have conducted a thorough search in the area to ensure there is nobody in need of assistance.
"It is highly likely the person responsible for cutting this cable will have been badly burned or suffered an electrical shock; we would ask them to seek medical assistance as a matter of urgency.
"An electric shock of this magnitude could have caused significant internal injuries that might not be immediately apparent.
"Our initial inquiries are to ensure the safety of the person responsible, if you have any information that would help us identify this person please call us on 101."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article