Sky and TalkTalk internet down after rats chew through broadband cables

'We have identified the cause of the fault, to be the work of rodents'

Customers in South London have been left without service (AFP/Getty Images)

Rodents have left people in South London without broadband, after chewing through cables.

Sky and TalkTalk customers have been affected by the unusual problem, which was first reported yesterday evening.

Both companies have apologised to customers, and have been working on fixing the issues.

“South London. Work continues on repairing broken fibre cables. We have identified the cause of the fault, to be the work of rodents,” Sky’s Help Team tweeted this morning.

In a separate update, it added: “Unfortunately rodents have been destroying cables in your area so our engineers are out repairing these just now.”

Sky customers inTulseHill,Balham,Brixton, Nine Elms,Streatham,Dulwich,Vauxhall, South Clapham, Forest Hill and Battersea have been affected.

The company has now said that the issues have been fixed, though some customers say they still can't get online.

TalkTalk, meanwhile, says its customers in Balham, Battersea, Streatham, Tooting and Vauxhall have been left without service, due to “damaged Virgin Media cabling in the local vicinity”.

Its engineers have identified the damaged sections of the cabling and are working to replace them.