Flames erupted from manhole covers outside Hackney Town Hall after two underground electrical explosions this morning.
Mare Street is shut while emergency services get the situation under control.
They were called at 9.35am after reports of a loud bang and fire coming from manhole covers.
No injuries have been reported.
“Police were called at approximately 9.35am to reports of two explosions underneath manhole covers in the vicinity of Mare Street, Hackney,” said a Scotland Yard spokesman.
London Fire Brigade said they had been called to a “fire at an electrical junction box at pavement level” at the junction with Reading Lane and had one fire crew on the scene.
A spokesman for UK Power Networks, which owns power lines in and around the capital, said: “We were requested by the emergency services to attend an incident at the junction of Mare Street and Reading Lane in Hackney at 9.51 this morning.
“Our engineers are assisting the authorities investigating at the scene.”
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