It is hoped that one cable will be repaired by early next week, although that will be dependant on the weather and the extent of the damage. The other two cables will then be repaired.

Darragh McDermott, JT’s Director of Corporate Affairs, said: ” I am pleased to say that so far disruption has been kept to an absolute minimum and I would like to thank our engineering teams, who have been working around the clock to keep the Islands connected via our cable link with France, and our customers for their understanding.

“Thanks to the actions taken since the cables were cut, we have capacity in place to manage demand, although we have obviously lost spare capacity.

“We will continue to keep our customers up to date with what is an extremely challenging emergency operation at sea.”