Thousands of broadband users have been left without service today following a fire in central Manchester earlier this morning, damaging some of BT's telephone network.

The fire itself occurred in one of BT's claimed 'deep tunnels', originally built as people shelters during World War II. The fire at George Street, Manchester while itself not large, has managed to severely interrupt services for over 100,000 of BT's customers, including causing havoc for the Ambulance emergency service, which houses their radio network in the tunnel.

BT have been in touch and has issued the following list of 25 exchanges as having "problems" due to the fire. Its envisaged that further exchanges may also be hit as BT are currently re-routing many of the citys' communications via alternative routes until the problem is resolved.

You can read more about the history of deep tunnels here