Shetland's damaged subsea cable now repaired, says operator

The damaged subsea cable to Shetland which left the islands without internet and phone services has been successfully repaired.

Two breaks in the lines connecting Shetland to the mainland led police to declare a major incident on Thursday.

Broadband and mobile connections were later reinstated with a temporary fix.

Now the cable operator Farosese Telecom has confirmed the link between Shetland and the Faroe Islands, which broke earlier last week, is fully repaired.

Work continues on a separate "back-up" cable linking Shetland with the Scottish mainland, via Orkney, which was cut on Thursday and led to widespread communications issues.

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Faeroese Telecom previously said the damage to the cables was likely caused by fishing vessels.

A spokesman for BT Group, which provides communications services through the cables, said: "Following the restoration of all broadband and mobile services to Shetland on Thursday afternoon, Faroese Telecom has confirmed that their subsea cable connecting Shetland with the Faroe Islands has been successfully repaired.

"All services have remained stable since Thursday afternoon when engineers applied a temporary solution to reconnect Shetland to our network."

Police Scotland said officers and vehicles which were moved to the area to ensure public access to emergency services would be withdrawn in the coming days.

Ch Insp Stuart Clemenson, area commander for Shetland, said: "I would like to thank all communities on Shetland and our partner agencies for their help and dedication in recent days.

"Thanks to a strong response from partners we were able to make sure the public had access to emergency services while engineers worked to restore communications.

"This is a prime example of how we work together, locally and nationally to make sure that incidents like these have as little impact as possible.

"Such a speedy response from all helped significantly reduce a serious situation developing for our communities and I would like to pay tribute to everyone involved."