The owner of a city restaurant lost more than £8,000 in business after being forced to close due to a gas leak outside of the building.

Shiki, a Japanese eatery located in Tombland, closed for one of its busiest weekends this summer after discovering a gas leak inside a meter cupboard on Friday, July 22.

Owner Shun Tomii contacted their gas supplier to report the problem and engineers immediately came out to turn off the supply to the business.

But the problem was not fixed for a further three days.

Mr Tomii said: "We couldn't open on Friday or Saturday and it was a really busy week with the graduations and amazing weather. It was such a shame.

"I had to call 130 people to cancel their bookings. It caused more than £8,000 in damages and that's excluding the money we would have also made from walk-in customers.

"It was really frustrating and we couldn't do anything about it.

"We have people who work for us and customers who had special occasions.

"It was a sad moment."

Despite attempting to contact various gas companies to get the problem sorted, the firm's gas supply was not returned until 9.30pm on Monday, July 25.

Mr Tomii said: "We didn't know who we needed to talk to.

"Cadent did eventually send another engineer but they said they couldn't fix it.

"Gas prices have already gone up, so why did we have to suffer even more?"

A spokesman for Cadent said: “Our engineer attended quickly and took immediate action to keep everyone safe by isolating the property’s supply to stop the leak.

"As this involved a non-domestic meter and internal pipework, we advised the customer about who they needed to contact regarding the repair before the gas supply could be safely turned back on."

It came as another hit for the business, during the cost of living crisis, which has seen the price of imported supplies rocket.

But Mr Tomii said they are thankful for their customers who continue to support them.

He added: "It's tough times. But we survived through the pandemic and we are determined to survive this time."