Telephone blackout for Bank Holiday weekend

TENS of thousands of households and businesses face the bank holiday weekend without phone lines after a flood knocked out a telephone exchange yesterday, writes Kate Ferguson.

Firefighters were called to the building, on the junction of Burne Street and Bell Street in Marylebone, at 7.30am on Wednesday morning.

No one was hurt in the incident.

A spokeswoman for the London Fire brigade said: "Two fire engines and around ten firefighters attended a flooding incident in an electrical intake room within the basement area of a building in Burne Street in Marylebone, yesterday.

"The Brigade was called at 7.30am and the incident was over by 9.50am. Crews from Paddington station were at the scene. They left the scene at 9.50am."

A BT spokeswoman confirmed that the flooding occurred in one of their buildings.

She said: "Following major flooding at a BT exchange in the Paddington area, tens of thousands of customers in parts of North and West London may be experiencing a loss of broadband and/or telephone service. Customers in other parts of the country may also be affected.

"We are currently working on restoring services to customers, however as this is a complex incident we cannot accurately predict when all services will be restored. We will issue further updates as the situation changes."

Customers can get recorded updates by calling 0800 1690199. The message will be updated as the situation changes.

"Any customers needing to make calls to the emergency services who have a problem using their phones are advised to do so by using

their mobile phone, or alternatively by using a friend or neighbour's working phone. A number of mobile services are also affected so

customers may not be able to make or receive calls on their mobile or may experience an intermittent service.