Watch: Burst water main causes flood chaos near London King’s Cross station

Firefighters evacuate homes and close roads after 16in pipe fails and turns streets into rivers

Firefighters struggled to hold back the waters after a burst main brought chaos to one of central London’s busiest roads.
Around eight fire engines and 60 firefighters armed with mobile flood barriers rushed to the scene near King’s Cross station early on Sunday morning, with footage showing water running down the road in rivers.
Along with fire rescue units, the London Fire Brigade’s (LFB) drone team was deployed at 4am.
Crews have evacuated around 20 people due to flooding in homes after what LFB said was a burst water main on Pentonville Road.
Further footage posted on X, formerly Twitter, showed water gushing down flights of stairs, with the caption: “Just what you needed, burst water pipe.”
The failure of the 16in water main on Pentonville Road caused flooding affecting “an area of around 250 sq metres”, according to the fire service.
The brigade used mobile flood barriers to divert the water and urged people to avoid the area.
It warned: “Vehicles can quickly become unstable in moving water. Avoid driving through the flooded area.”
Pentonville Road was closed to traffic between Penton Rise and King’s Cross Road by the flooding.