more than 12 hours on Wednesday because of a telecom fault.

Police received complaints from several people using payphones or cellphones whose calls went dead whenever they tried to get through.

The freephone Crimestoppers number, 1-800-623-8477, is manned by operators in the US who then contact Bermuda detectives.

But a number of calls did not connect yesterday, leaving Bermuda without a full Crimestoppers service from Tuesday evening.

Bermuda Telephone Company engineers fixed the fault on Wednesday morning.

And a spokeswoman for Bermuda Police Service said the force's Code-a-phone service, manned by officers in Police operations, was still available.

The only difference between Crimestoppers and Code-a-phone is that Crimestoppers calls cannot be traced. But Code-a-phone, on 295-1140, still allows callers not to give their name.

A Police spokeswoman said: "There was a problem on the Crimestoppers line which affected those trying to call from a payphone or a cellular phone.

"The calls were being rejected on the 1-800 toll. But the problem was fixed as quickly as possible.''