Landline phones are still malfunctioning across Redbridge despite BT engineers’ efforts to fix them “as quickly as possible”.

The problem stops people being able to reach landline numbers, although there is no difficulty calling out.

On Monday, a spokesman for the company said the issues were caused by “malicious damage” of cables in Ealing and should be solved by 7pm that day.

But the duration of the fault has now been removed from the website, which reads: “Estimated time to resolve: Ongoing.”

Aldborough Hatch resident Ron Jeffries said people calling his phone have got an engaged tone or automated message from BT.

“It has been like this since Saturday,” he added.

BT have not confirmed how many people are being affected but said problems were expected to continue for some time for TalkTalk customers.