Thousands without broadband after malicious damage

Openreach workers told the BBC they were called to the site of the outage, near Trent Bridge

Thousands of homes and businesses across Nottinghamshire are without telephone and internet services after the network was "maliciously damaged".

Telecommunications company Openreach said it had replaced about 700m (2,296ft) of cable after one of them was cut on Sunday.

The outage was affecting about 10,000 properties including households and businesses, which were unable to use card payment machines.

Openreach said it could take about 48 hours before everyone affected had services restored.

The firm confirmed some affected households had their broadband restored on Monday afternoon, and that engineers would work through the night to reconnect the rest.

The network was damaged close to Trent Bridge, an Openreach spokesperson said, with the properties affected "mainly in West Bridgford and The Meadows".

Openreach added that Nottinghamshire Police had been informed.

A spokesperson for the firm said: "We're really disappointed that people living and working here are bearing the brunt of criminal behaviour and theft from our network.

"These attacks cause significant damage and unacceptable disruption to the lives of local people and put vulnerable people at risk."

Medical centre manager, Louise Perkins, said patients were being communicated with "as best they could"

In Clifton, a medical centre has been forced to implement "disaster recovery plans".

Louise Perkins, practice manager of Rivergreen Medical Centre, said the centre's clinical and telephone systems were internet-based, making it "challenging" to manage.

"It's a massive impact," she said.

Ms Perkins added some GPs had been redeployed to other affiliated centres, while nurses were "running a reduced service".

Andy Charlesworth, 70, said the situation was "worrying" as he could not get a doctor's appointment

Andy Charlesworth, 70, a patient of the centre, said he was unable to book a doctor's appointment due to the outage.

"It's impacted me both through the doctors and at home because I've got no internet at home," he said.

Ms Perkins said it would have to book patients in "later on" if appointments had been affected.

In Bingham, Alex Beiscak - manager of DIY shop The Handicentre - said the situation had made things "very difficult".

"A lot of our suppliers - their deadlines for ordering are on the Monday, so if we can't put our order in, we won't get any stock for the week," the 37-year-old said.

Some shops in the town have placed "cash only" signs in their windows, including Lidl and Co-op.

A Lidl branch in Bingham is among several shops hit by the outage