A damaged subsea cable between remote Scottish islands and the mainland has caused major disruption leaving the island without phone or internet.

This is the second instance of a cut subsea cable in a week, with repairs ongoing for the first incident last week.

Local police on the Shetland Islands said that there was a “complete outage” in the islands and that “phones, internet and computers are not usable.”

A “major incident” has occurred in the UK’s remote Shetland Isles causing some speculation after the Nordstream attacks. All communication lines have been cut. Police say they are “patrolling the area” but have not said what caused it yet. https://t.co/3t6svQrn1F

— Liz Cookman (@liz_cookman) October 20, 2022

A spokesperson for BT told the BBC that there was a “break” in the undersea cable that connects the islands to the mainland.

Given the remote nature of the Sheland, Orkney and Faroe islands, damage to one cable is effectively enough to cut them off from the outside world whereas more significant links – like those between Europe and North America, for example – have multiple cables that would have to damaged to create any widespread adverse effects.

As it stands, homes and businesses across the islands have been severely affected, with reports to the BBC saying that many shops are unable to take card payments.