Gang of badgers terrorise local village as they cause mayhem by gnawing through water pipes and break into homes
A group of badgers have cut off water to a village after they chewed through pipes
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A group of badgers have caused chaos in a Norfolk village by breaking into homes and gnawing through pipes which has left the area without water.
The protected animals have burst through a main pipe in the village of Bradfield, leaving many residents with low-pressure or no water.
The black and white creatures have also reportedly entered residents’ homes and scared pets.
Last week, residents noticed flooding on a road parallel to a badger den, prompting them to alert Anglian Water.
Badgers are Britain's largest land carnivores
Philippe Clement/Arterra/Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesThe pipes that supply water to the village run through some of the animals’ underground caves.
Badgers and their dens are protected by law which means Anglian Water had to ask Natural England for permission to repair the pipes.
Norfolk is an ideal habitat for animals, who prefer woodland and open country areas.
The water company has now been allowed to excavate around the den, closing the road on Wednesday to carry out repairs.
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Carolyn Mitchell, who lives near the den, said it is not the first time the badgers, which are Britain's largest carnivores, have caused chaos.
“About ten years ago, they gnawed through a pipe and we were without water for four or five days,” she said.
“They couldn’t fix it because badgers are protected. They can be a nightmare because they’re all over the place around here.”
Mitchell keeps horses near the den and is worried that the deep holes dug by the protected creatures could cause harm to her animals if they tripped over them.
She also said that a badger once entered her parents’ home through their cat flap, terrifying the family’s pet in the process.
Residents in the village of Bradfield, Norfolk have had their homes broken into by badgers
Geograph
An Anglian Water spokesperson said that despite the disturbance residents have not been cut off from water. They added: “We have some small incidents of low pressures and to reduce this we have installed a pump at the end of the main.”
Last August, a market town was left without internet for two days after rats gnawed through underground cables. An engineer from BT Openreach claimed the rodents chewed through one of the underground fibre cables, impacting the town’s 12,000 inhabitants.
Residents in Tring told GB News about the ordeal, with one saying: “It’s been hard because everything runs through the internet.”
Local services were also impacted, with patients unable to access surgeries’ websites to make appointments and pharmacies being unable to order prescriptions.