The chaos caused by Monday's underground cable fire in Manchester appears to be easing, according to the latest update from BT.

As of 7.00am this morning, seven of the 41 cables destroyed by the fire have been repaired and a couple more are nearing completion. Others are expected to be repaired throughout the day.

BT engineers are working round the clock to repair the damaged cables located 30m below the centre of Manchester.

So far around 20,000 phone lines have been fully restored, but it still means that around 118,000 lines are plagued by an intermittent service.

Of those, some 1,500 people are completely without a phone service.

A spokesman for BT said the situation "was improving", adding that that the repairs should be completed over the next 48-72 hours, if work continues at the current level. ®

Related stories

BT denies cable fire was in A-bomb exchange (http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/5/36652.html)
BT struggles to repair Manchester fire damage (http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/5/36645.html)
BT fire disrupts emergency services (http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/5/36619.html)
BT cable fire causes 'extensive damage' in Manchester (http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/5/36594.html)