Residents in Yalding and parts of Wateringbury were left without internet access or landline phones for four days across the weekend after a cable theft.

Police said they were called at around 2.10am on Friday morning to a report that a quantity of underground cabling had been stolen from Bow Hill, Wateringbury, near the junction with Hunt Street and Kenward Road.

Patrols attended and completed a search of the area, but nobody was arrested.

The theft left a large part of Yalding without phones until the service was restored by BT Openreach this morning.

One resident said: "There have been a number of thefts in the area. It sounds as though it is an organised gang rather than just vandalism.

"Of course, it's very inconvenient for everyone, one of my neighbours was unable to phone for transport to reach a hospital appointment.

"I was lucky. BT sent me a mini-hub very quickly, so I was able to retain my Internet access at least."

Yalding is not as badly off as Horsmonden. Villagers there lost their phones fives times in four weeks in a series of cable thefts, though fortunately on the last occasion in June, police arrested a suspect - a 25-year-old man from Margate.

In July, the biggest theft to date left 8,000 homes and businesses across Maidstone, Sutton Valence and Staplehurst without phones.

The rising price of copper, which recently reached £8,000 a tonne, is making cable thefts more attractive to criminals.

An Openreach spokesperson said: "We are really disappointed that people in and around Maidstone and other parts of the Kent are regularly bearing the brunt of criminal behaviour.

"These attacks on our network have caused significant damage and unacceptable disruption to the lives of local people through the loss of phone and broadband services."

She said: "Our security team is working closely with Kent Police and we’ve deployed additional security measures to protect our network from future attacks."

Police are appealing for anybody with information to call 01622 604100, quoting reference 46/150890/22.

You can also contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.