One optical fibre cable was cut off in Baicheng County in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on early Friday morning, February 23, 2007, causing a halt in telecommunications between Baicheng and Aksu Prefecture, and a military garrison.

Three optical fiber cables of two communication companies were destroyed in Baicheng County in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on early Friday morning, causing a halt in telecommunications between Baicheng and Aksu Prefecture and, crucially, to a nearby military garrison.

China national radio reports that more than half of the villages in Baicheng have been encountering telephone signal interruptions for over ten hours.

Technicians have ascertained that the vandals destroyed the cables for the purpose of sabotage, rather than for the theft of the wires. One of the 3 cables was severed outright.

And, this being the first such case in Xinjiang, it was difficult to establish the points of internal breakage in the other two.

Technicians finally located the breakages after some seven hours of investigation.

Communications were resumed on the same day, following a rush repair.

According to preliminary estimates, the direct economical loss will exceed one million yuan or US$125,000.

The case is currently under investigation by local police.

Technicians are repairing maliciously-destroyed cables in Baicheng County in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on early Friday morning, February 23, 2007, causing a halt in telecommunications between Baicheng and Aksu Prefecture, and a military garrison.

(CRIENGLISH.com February 25, 2007)