More than 130,000 homes and businesses are without BT voice and data services this morning following a devastating fire in underground cable tunnels in Manchester.

It's understood that the blaze broke out at around 2.00am this morning, causing "extensive damage".

Fire crews are still at the scene dealing with the incident. BT engineers are on hand to begin repair work as soon as they are given the all clear to enter the cable chamber.

Details are still sketchy and the true scale of the problem has yet to be assessed.

A BT spokesman was unable to say when the damage would be repaired but admitted that it would have "an impact on the wider network". ®