Phone line cut affects thousands

Tens of thousands of people in east London remain without internet access after underground cables were damaged.

British Telecom (BT) said 50,000 addresses lost phone service after the damage in a tunnel on Saturday.

The company said the vast majority of customers, including commercial ones, have now been reconnected.

A BT spokesman said most of the residential telephone lines were now working and added that the firm would work overnight to solve other issues.

The spokesman added: "It is a very complex and difficult problem to fix easily. There are still a number of lines out of action."

He said that on Monday night it was not possible to say how long it would take to restore a full service.

The problem also caused road congestion as traffic lights had been cut off from the computer system.

Although the signals are on, Transport for London (TfL) said it had been unable to alter the phasing of them to adapt to traffic conditions.