Thousands of homes and businesses in Northern Ireland lost electricity as Storm Barra passed over the region.

Gusts of 76mph at Orlock Head in Co Down and 71mph at Magilligan in Co Londonderry among the strongest in the UK, were recorded by the Met Office on Tuesday.

A yellow wind warning was due to remain in place until 6pm on Tuesday.

At one stage on Tuesday afternoon over 5,000 homes and businesses were without power.

In Belfast, the Christmas Market at City Hall closed for the day due to weather conditions while in Londonderry police and fire crews dealt with fallen scaffolding at the junction of Academic Road with Rosemount Avenue.

Several National Trust properties, including the Carrick a Rede bridge in north Antrim as well as Mount Stewart house and Castle Ward in Co Down, were closed.

A spokesperson for NIE Networks said the high winds and adverse weather caused a low level of damage to the network.

By around 3.30pm the number of customers without power had dropped to 3,500.

“Engineers from NIE Networks have been responding throughout the day to assess the extent of the damage in each area affected and carry out repairs to restore power to those customers without supply,” they said.

“The NIE Networks Incident Management Centre at Craigavon has been open since early morning, as have our local incident centres which are in locations across Northern Ireland and used by our teams to co-ordinate our localised response.

“The electricity network has performed well today despite the severe weather brought by Storm Barra.

“Extra staff were brought in to help with our response to Storm Barra and our teams are working hard to repair any damage to the network as safely and quickly as possible.

“We would like to remind customers that if they should experience a power cut they can report the fault online at nienetworks.co.uk or call the NIE Networks Customer Helpline on 03457 643 643.”