Telecoms giant BT has been forced to apologise after swathes of customers had their broadband temporarily cut off.

The internet provider's website also crashed and many customers reported the customer service line was down.

A BT spokesman said: "Large numbers of customers have been experiencing temporary issues with their broadband services this afternoon. Customers can still receive and make calls as normal.

"We've been working hard to fix the issue and are glad to report that nearly every customer affected is now reconnected, approximately two hours after the problem started.

"We apologise to any affected customers for the inconvenience."

 

 

 

 

Connection problems have been detected across the UK, with most reports coming from Glasgow, London, Birmingham, Coventry, Manchester, Sheffield, Leicester, and Leeds.

Glasgow comedian Janey Godley joked on Twitter: "Dear BT have you tried turning your server off for ten seconds then back on?"

The BT spokesman confirmed that there was "no evidence" of the service problem being caused by a "malicious attack".