Hundreds of Kent jobs are at risk as retailer Phones 4U is plunged into administration.

All 550 shops - including 16 in the county - will be closed today while a decision is made about if the business can continue to trade.

Phones 4U branches in Kent include Ashford, Bluewater, Canterbury, Chatham, Dartford, Dover, Folkestone, Gillingham, Gravesend, Hempstead Valley, Maidstone, Ramsgate, Sevenoaks, Sittingbourne, Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells.

Shoppers stopped to read signs informing them stores would not be opening today following the shock move.

The chain blamed the move on mobile network EE's decision not to renew ints contract, following a similar move from Vodaphone earlier this month.

It emerged this afternoon that Dixons Carphone is poised to offer a lifeline to staff at Phones 4U, Britain's second-largest mobile phone chain.

Dixons Carphone is preparing to issue a statement later in which it will highlight at least 1,500 employment vacancies at Carphone Warehouse stores, for which affected staff will be eligible to apply.

Phones 4U said it has a healthy business, but cannot function without mobile network suppliers.

The firm's 5,596 staff members had been told to turn up for work as normal this morning.

It promised that existing customers would not be affected by the turmoil.

But phones ordered and not posted - such as anyone ordering the new iPhone 6 over the weekend - would be disrupted.

The Phones 4U website has been taken offline and replaced with a message to customers illustrated with a sad face.

It was signed off: "Thank you for your custom. The heartbroken Phones4u team."

PwC is expected to be appointed as administrator today and will decide on if the business can continue to trade.

Phones 4U was set up by entrepreneur John Caudwell in the middle of the 1980s and sold for £1.5bn some 20 years later. It is now owned by private equity firm BC Partners.

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