Homes in the east of the Island were without cable service last night after a large vehicle cut through a CableVision cable.

People in St. George's, Smith's, Hamilton and Devonshire parishes suffered outages for at least four hours from 5 p.m.

The vehicle's driver is thought to have left the scene immediately after cutting a section of fibre optic cable on Tee Street, between Middle Road and South Shore Road, late in the afternoon.

CableVision general manager Terry Roberson said in a statement released last night: "A large, unknown vehicle cut a section of cable, impacting cable service in some eastern parishes. CableVision crews immediately went to the scene to investigate the problem.

"If a member of the public is aware of what happened or witnessed anything related to this incident, please contact Bermuda CableVision and ask for Mike Jones. We would appreciate any information that can shed light on this incident.

"We apologise to our customers for any inconvenience that the cable outage has caused. We are working diligently to fix the problem as soon as possible."

Mr. Roberson said repairs took several hours because 60 strands of fibre optic cable were affected. At 9 p.m. last night, a CableVision spokeswoman said normal service was expected to resume any time before midnight.

Anyone who saw how the cable was cut should call CableVision on 292-5544.