Sky and TalkTalk broadband customers in parts of London found themselves with no internet access over night, after rats chewed through the fibre cables used to deliver the services.

Sky contacted customers in South London this morning, stating that “extensive damage” had been caused by “rodents chewing through cables”.

It added that “it’s taking longer to fix than we’d like”, estimating that the service would be restored by “lunchtime”.

TalkTalk also reported loss of service in Balham, Battersea, Streatham, Tooting and Vauxhall, blaming “damaged Virgin Media cabling in the local vicinity”.

Both Sky and TalkTalk use Virgin Media’s fibre network to deliver broadband services to customers in South London. Virgin Media has not yet commented on the incident.

According to website DownDetector, which tracks major network outages, the problems started between 9pm and 10pm last night.