Firms at a Bradford mill are furious at having to send staff home because of a power cut.

More than 200 people were sent home after a fault left the companies based in Regina Mills, Gibson Street, off Leeds Road, without electricity for over 30 hours.

Bosses said they had suffered large financial losses and could have lost customers.

Dave Croft, a co-director of bearing and engineering firm D2, said the cut had been debilitating to his business.

He said staff had been sent home as temperatures fell to 7C in the black-out, adding: "Everything in our office requires power and without it that's it - we can't take orders, we can't buy and we can't sell. Business just stops."

John Wade, finance director at Deighton Manufacturing which supplies food processing equipment across the globe, said he estimated the financial loss to the company at around £30,000 and would be contacting power company YEDL to make a complaint.

He said staff would have to work overtime on Sunday to catch up with orders.

"Our machines have stood still for 36 hours and we are going to have to put in a lot of overtime," he said.

"It is annoying because you do not know who is trying to ring you and they may have taken their business elsewhere. This could affect business long-term and these are tough times."

Philip May, installation manager with Northern Trade Windows, said he had struggled to contact customers and the cold had forced him to leave the office.

Dawn Baker, the customer relations team manager for YEDL, said: "A fault occurred on an underground cable supplying two business premises in Gibson Street, Bradford at 7pm on Tuesday evening.

"A generator was taken to site on Wednesday lunchtime with a view to restoring supplies as quickly as possible.

"However due to the location of the fault it was not possible at the time.

"Our engineers continued to work on site into the night and supplies were restored by generator at 3am yesterday. Staff will continue with work on site today to effect repairs and transfer supplies to normal.

"YEDL apologise for any inconvenience and disruption this may have caused."