AROUND 140 residents lost their phones and emergency intercoms for almost five days after construction workers accidentally severed an underground cable.

BT staff were in Station Road, Huncoat, yesterday trying to restore the services.

The majority of homes affected were terrace houses but some elderly residents in Hyndburn Council bungalows were unable to use intercoms, which alert wardens when a cord is pulled.

Although the service is run by Rossendale firm, Elder Care, it operates through the BT network.

The telecoms firm said the cable was cut at a new housing development off Lynwood Road on Thursday.

Jean Crowther, 84, who is registered blind and lives in Station Road, said: "Last week I had a fall in the kitchen and using my intercom I was able to get an ambulance here within 10 minutes.

"But if the same had happened this Friday I would have been on the floor all weekend. I think having to go four days without a phoneline or my intercom is disgraceful.

"My family were really worried as they could not contact me and thought something had happened. I have been told that other areas of Huncoat had their phones working by Saturday morning but I think we should have been a priority."

Another elderly resident, who did not want to be named, said: "I need to use my intercom regularly and I dread to think what could have happened if I needed to use it anytime between Thursday and Monday morning. Our phonelines should have been back on before now."

Another resident added: "It is just one of those things that happens but we are a little angry that they did not notify us. They only needed to post something through our doors to tell us what had happened, we only found out this morning."

Huncoat Sub-Post Office also experienced problems with its computerised systems and suffered slight disruption to services. Its phoneline was restored on Saturday morning.

A spokesman for BT said: "The fault was caused when a third party, not connected to BT, went through an underground cable. We have worked through the weekend and today to restore services to those affected.

"It is unfortunate when we suffer this kind of third-party damage, which in this case led to a painstaking job.

"Around 140 customers were affected and we had to replace a whole length of underground cable and then test the lines from each house to the cable to ensure there were no crossed lines."

The spokesman added they were hoping to have every house restored to normal by the end of yesterday.