Hundreds of households and businesses have been left without phone or internet connection after thieves stole two underground cables.

BT said its engineers installed new wires overnight on Monday, April 23, but some residents and traders in the Hampton area would still suffer disruption until the weekend.

A spokeswoman for BT said: “There has been a lot of damage and this is complex work and we expect it to take us into the weekend to get everyone back on.

“We take attacks on our network very seriously and have been working hard with police, scrap metal dealers and the Government to deal with the issue of metal thefts.”