knocked out the main lines to several departments yesterday.

Several members of Works and Engineering and a crew from the Bermuda Telephone Company Limited worked throughout the evening to find the cause of the problem and restore service.

Telco operations manager Mr. Collington Perinchief said the problem arose during the early hours of yesterday morning.

"It looks as though we've got an internal problem on one of the switches,'' Mr. Perinchief said. "We will stay with it through the evening until the problem is rectified.'' As a result of the problem, Government's main telephone number -- 295-5151 -- and some direct internal lines to various departments were not in service.

The Ministry of Works and Engineering apologised for any inconvenience this may have caused.