Islanders on Shetland have lost nearly all phone and internet connection after an underwater cable between their homes and the mainland was damaged.
Authorities have declared a major incident over the disruption, the cause of which has not yet been confirmed.
BT has said the damage is in a third-party cable and work has started on diverting services via other lines.
Phone and internet connection for Shetland runs through a sea cable from the Faroe Islands to Aberdeenshire in Scotland. Shetland is 130 miles from the Scottish mainland and has a population of about 23,000 people.
Residents have been advised to avoid making non-urgent calls so that all available lines can be used for emergencies if required. Police and BT issued reminders that in an emergency, people can call 999 from a landline or mobile, even without a signal.
Responding to the outage, BT Group spokesperson said: “Engineers are working to divert services via other routes as soon as possible and we’ll provide further updates.
“Our external subsea provider is also looking to restore their link quickly. Anyone who needs to call 999 should try their landline, tv or their mobile, even if they don’t have a signal from their own mobile provider. We’re sorry for any inconvenience.”
A similar incident occurred just last week following damage to another subsea cable connecting Shetland with the Faroe Islands, which is due to be repaired on Saturday.
Superintendent David Ross said: “Officers are patrolling in vehicles and on foot and we are working with partners to make additional resources available. I would ask that relatives and neighbours of elderly or vulnerable people check on them regularly. Assistance alarms may not be operating correctly.”
The MP for Orkney and Shetlands Alastair Carmichael told the BBC he had raised the issue with the UK government and said it could be days before lines are restored.
He said the priority is to fix the issue but the resilience of the sea cables would need to be questioned in future.
