Locked down Windsor residents who found their taps running dry cleared the shelves of bottled water at Dedworth's Co-op Food shop yesterday.

Thames Water received complaints from about 200 people after taps dried up in Mill Lane and surrounding roads at about 4pm.

Resident Michael Clarke said: "I passed people walking back with bottles of water as I headed to the Co-op and the shelves were empty. There was a Thames Water van with men working on something in Smiths Lane."

A spokesman for Thames Water said that the problem had been identified as a faulty valve in some underground piping which was quickly fixed.

Supplies were restored by 8pm.

She said: "If it had proved to be a more serious problem likely to take time to fix we would have provided bottled water to those affected."