The big freeze has left hundreds of homes in Bristol without water or worse still - burst pipes.

So many people called Bristol Water to report their taps running dry today that they jammed the switchboard.

It's so cold that the water has been freezing in pipes even in homes with central heating on.

Bristol Water said staff have been working round the clock to fix leaks and burst water mains with the ones affecting homes being repaired first.

Fifteen leaks and bursts were repaired on Tuesday night alone at locations including Kingswood, Hotwells, Easton, Bitton, Downend, Redhill, Cheddar, Sandford, Worle in Weston-super-Mare, Failand, Hanham and St Phillips.

Ninety were repaired in the first seven days of the new year and 330 bursts - mostly caused by the cold weather - were fixed in December.

Bristol Water spokesman Jeremy Williams said: "Every effort is made to restore supplies to normal as quickly as possible but we do ask customers to bear with us while we tackle the problems in extreme weather."

"Water mains have burst in St Mark's Road, Easton, and on the A371 at Prestleigh. While the mains were repaired quickly, works to repair the road surfaces might take a few days."

Contractors Daniels has beebn repairing leaks in Horfield, Bedminster, Kingswood, Stoke Bishop, Stapleton, Lawrence Weston, Coalpit Heath, Frampton Cotterell, Clifton, Fishponds, St Werburghs, St Andrews, St George, Brentry, Kingsdown, Horfield, Sneyd Park and Lawrence Hill.

The temperature has fallen to -8C (17.6F) in the Bristol area causing parts of Chew Valley Lake to freeze over.

It took the swans by surprise and two of the birds had to be rescued after they got stuck in the ice.

Hanham Abbotts Junior School was closed on Wednesday after its central heating system failed.

A special educational unit for 21 pupils at Shirehampton and part of a referral unit for children at Weston-super-Mare have also closed because of boiler failures.

Motorists have been badly hit by the Arctic conditions.

There were claims that the Highways Agency had "over-gritted" a slip road at the top of the M32 and it had to be closed because so many drivers were losing control.

But the agency said motorists were driving much too fast for the conditions which was the real cause of the problem and they should slow right down to 20mph on slip roads.

Thanks to the cold snap, heating bill payouts to pensioners and the vulnerable have now topped £100 million as the Government stepped in to help.

The £25-a-week payout is triggered when an area's average temperature falls to freezing or below for seven consecutive days.

The National Pensioners' Convention warned that 12 elderly people could die every hour due to the cold and 260,000 pensioners had died from hypothermia since 1997.

It was expected to be a little less cold today (thurs) with sunny spells but it will not warm up before the weekend.

Nikki Berry, a forecaster for MeteoGroup UK, said: "There is quite a bit more cloud around which will help raise temperatures.

"Generally northern half of the UK is looking much warmer, 1C to 3C minimum."

The current freezing conditions have been caused by Arctic air sweeping across Scandinavia and over the North Sea.

But temperatures are still a long way off the record low of -27C (-16.6F) in northern Scotland 14 years ago.