Internet and phone services were down or running slowly in several French cities on Wednesday after fibre optic cables were cut overnight in suspected attacks on the crucial data infrastructure, telecom operators said, reports The Telegraph.
"The attacks took place overnight at 4:00 am (0200 GMT). Our teams have been at work since this morning," said a spokesman for Free, the worst-affected internet and mobile phone service provider.
In a message on Twitter, the company referred to "multiple malicious acts" targeting its cables, which led to outages and slow connections for many clients.
Competitor SFR said it had experienced "several fibre cuts" in the Paris region and in Lyon in southeast France.
Other operators such as Bouygues Telecom and market leader Orange were not affected because they use different networks, but problems were reported by users around the country, including in regional cities such as Strasbourg, Reims and Grenoble.