POLICE Scotland has announced that extra resources and manpower are being sent to Shetland after communications to the islands were cut off.
A police statement said the force will be working with partners in the area to ensure locals can access emergency services during the current outage affecting some landlines and mobiles.
As part of this effort, officers and vehicles will be sent from across Scotland to Shetland to assist with operations until the issue is resolved.
Police Scotland says the extra officers will be ready to be deployed by Friday and that they will stay as long as is necessary.
The statement added that engineers are working to restore or divert services via other routes and that Shetlanders should be able to call 999 from their landlines or mobile even if they don’t have signal from their mobile network provider.
Superintendent David Ross said: “We are working with partners to ensure people across Shetland have access to emergency services. Officers and vehicles from across Scotland are being sent to assist until normal service is resumed.
“They will be ready to be deployed on Friday, October 21, and will remain as long as necessary. Local police stations are open and there is an emergency Hub set up in the Tesco car park in South Road, Lerwick.
“In the meantime, we are advising people not to make non-urgent calls for the time being so that all available lines can be used for emergencies if required.
“If you cannot access 999 by phone you should go to your nearest police station, ambulance station, fire station or hospital to report an emergency or try flagging down an emergency services vehicle that does not have its blue lights on.
“Officers are patrolling in vehicles and on foot and will continue to make themselves available. In addition, I would ask that relatives and neighbours of elderly or vulnerable people check on them regularly. Assistance alarms may not be operating correctly.”
Communications to Shetland were cut off after a subsea cable was damaged, leading to phones, internet and computers becoming unusable.
