A suspected accident by contractors carrying out sewer repair work has resulted in an internet and phone-line blackout for about 3,000 customers in part of Merseyside.
Broadband provider Openreach said workers carrying out sewer excavation work on Hall Lane, Maghull, caused “significant damage” to part of its underground network.
Businesses and residents in the area have been without internet or landlines since about 13:00 BST on Thursday – and so far there is “no timescale” for repairs, it added.
Joy Sinnott, who works at Meadows Pharmacy on Liverpool Road South near the excavation site, said the issue had caused “chaos”.
She said staff at the pharmacy first realised something was wrong at lunchtime on Thursday, but initially believed it was their own network provider.
However, customers soon began reporting a raft of problems throughout the area.
Since then, the business has had to cope with no phone line, one working computer and no card payment machines.
“It is crazy just how much everything depends on the internet,” Sinnott said.
“Obviously it’s one day but with no internet we’ve got no access to patient prescriptions, patient records and with the phones obviously we haven’t got access to GP surgeries.”