Hundreds of homes have been left without broadband, TV or landline after Virgin Media services went down.

And the company has been unable to give any guarantee services will be back up and running for Christmas Day.

Engineers have been working on the problem since yesterday morning, when homes across Thanet were left without access to services many pay more than £100 a month for.

And it has left many fearing they could be facing Christmas Day cut off from hearing from friends and family and unable to access any form of entertainment.

Said one disgruntled customer in Birchington: "They originally said it would be fixed by 12.30pm on Thursday... then that was pushed back to 9.30pm and now they say it will be later this morning.

"But, obviously, it makes working from home nigh on impossible.

"We rely on Virgin for our TV and broadband and to be without both in the days leading up to Christmas has been extremely frustrating.

"The biggest fear we have now is that it will remain off for Christmas Day which will spoil the big day given we all rely on the internet so heavily."

Some reports suggest the problem may have been caused by vandalism but Virgin was unable to confirm this.

A Virgin Media spokesperson said: “We’re aware of an issue affecting broadband and TV services for some customers in Thanet and surrounding areas – this has been caused by a break in a fibre cable.

"Our engineers have been working flat out overnight to repair the damaged fibres and will continue to do so to restore services as quickly as possible. We apologise to those affected.”

Customers have been told the service should be back this morning. But it is understood this could be delayed further.