PHONE lines have been cut off to hundreds of homes and businesses after a fire in Ramsbottom.

The blaze broke out in a BT street cabinet on the corner of Bridge Street and Garden Street at 2.30am on Sunday.

Flames engulfed the cabinet and caused severe damage to hundreds of telephone lines.

Crews from Ramsbottom fire station spent 15 minutes putting out the fire.

An investigation has been launched to find out the cause of the fire, which may have been started deliberately.

A BT engineer is working to assess the damage and carry out repairs to the phone lines.

Only 10 people have so far reported faults on their phone lines, but a BT spokesman believes hundreds of customers have been affected.

Press officer, Jason Mann, said: “It appears that the damage is quite severe and therefore a substantial amount of repair work will be needed.

“We apologise to people who are affected by this. We will do everything we can to restore services to people as quickly as possible.”