Thieves cut phone and broadband connection to hundreds of home in the Scottish Borders after damaging a major cable.
Around 600 of the 800 mostly residential victims hit in Tweedbank were reconnected by last night and Openreach said the remainder would be back up “as soon as possible”.
A reward of £1,000 leading to the conviction of those responsible has been offered.
Police Scotland are appealing for information after the lines went down leaving homes without potentially critical internet services.
Residents in Tweedbank were affected between midnight and 2am yesterday.
A manhole cover was tampered with near Galafoot Bridge and cabling was damaged.
Inspector Tony Hodges said: “This is a mindless attack on the community, leaving many people without essential phone lines and internet services.
“We are keen to speak to anyone who may have been in the Kingsknowes Bridge and Tweedbank areas in the early hours of Wednesday and may have seen or heard anything.”
An Openreach spokesman said: “We believe thieves cut through an underground cable early on Wednesday.
“Damage was caused to a major cable which provides phone and broadband services to parts of Tweedbank.
“Engineers are working to restore services as soon as possible and we expect to restore the remaining services by the end of Thursday, we have reconnected around three quarters of affected lines.
“We would encourage anyone with a fault to contact their service provider who can arrange for incoming calls to be diverted to a mobile phone, where appropriate.”
“Metal theft is a continuing problem in the UK, affecting many industry sectors.
“An Openreach partnership with Crimestoppers offers up to £1,000 reward for information leading to arrests and subsequent successful convictions.
“Network security is of paramount importance to us, and Openreach uses many security measures in the fight against cable theft.”
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