Revealed: 250,000 people left without clean drinking water after a RABBIT infected supply

Anglian Water said its water treatment works at Pitsford was infected with cryptosporidium, a parasite which causes diarrhoea, after the rabbit found its way into a water tank.

More than 250,000 people in 108,000 homes across Northamptonshire were left without clean drinking water following the outbreak of the bug last month.

Anglian Water staff have been working to flush out 1,000 miles of pipe work after a rabbit infected the water

Peter Simpson, Anglian Water's chief operating officer, said: "Our investigations have concluded that this occurrence was due to a combination of unusual circumstances.

"We have already taken steps to ensure that this cannot happen again.

"We continually monitor the quality of our water. This monitoring enabled us to detect low levels of cryptosporidium at a very early stage, isolate the affected part of the process and take immediate steps to alert customers."

Anglian Water said today that its staff have been working to flush out 1,000 miles of pipe work. The company said it was able to lift the boil notice two weeks ahead of schedule.

A statement said: "The routine monitoring enabled us to detect low levels of cryptosporidium at an early stage and allowed the affected part of the treatment works to be swiftly isolated.

"Following extensive investigations, Anglian Water can now confirm that the source of the cryptosporidium in the water has been linked to a small rabbit, which gained access to the treatment process via a remote ancillary tank shortly before cryptosporidia were detected.

"More scientific work will be undertaken to understand the unusual type of cryptosporidium found in this case."

Anglian Water said it was the first time cryptosporidium had infected the treatment works since it was built 50 years ago.