BREAKING: Major incident declared in Shetland after CUT undersea cable leaves island isolated from UK mainland

Shetland is completely isolated from the UK mainland, with no communications systems functioning after an undersea cable was cut.

The island of Shetland is today, Thursday, October 20, completely isolated after an undersea cable connecting it to the UK mainland was cut. All internet and telephone services have been blacked out as a result.

A major incident has been declared by Northern Police, whose officers are patrolling the island in an effort to reassure residents. Locals are being informed that the 999 emergency number may still work even without any telephone signal.

‘We are advising people not to make non-urgent calls for the time being so that all available lines can be used for emergencies if required’, said Superintendent David Ross in a statement from Police Scotland.

Engineers are said to be hastily attempting to restore the services between the neighbouring islands of Faroe and Shetland after another cable was damaged last week. No cause has yet been given for today’s blackout.

‘Engineers are working to fix a complete outage on Shetland affecting its connection to the main line. Phones, the internet, and computers are not usable. Officers will continue to patrol the area and we will give you an update on the situation as soon as we have more information’, tweeted Northern Police earlier today.

https://twitter.com/northernPolice/status/1583039875355332608?s=20&t=n9bROBJvKYdHm0d0jYzhEA

‘Due to a break in a third-party subsea cable connecting Shetland with the Scottish mainland, some phone, broadband, and mobile services are affected. Engineers are working to divert services via other routes as soon as possible and we’ll provide further updates’, confirmed a BT Group spokesperson on Twitter.

They added: ‘Our external subsea provider is also looking to restore their link quickly. Anyone who needs to call 999 should try their landline or their mobile, even if they don’t have a signal from their own mobile provider. We’re sorry for any inconvenience’.

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