O2 customers in parts of Kent are unable to make calls and surf the web.

The network has confirmed it is aware of issues in the Medway Towns, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells.

A statement on O2's website read: "We’re aware some of our customers are currently experiencing voice issues with our network.

"Our engineers are working to identify the problem and restore the service as soon as possible."

The tracking website Down Detector indicated many thousands of people were affected by the issue with London among the hardest hit.

It reported a sudden upsurge in reports of problems with the phone provider, mainly relating to network coverage over the last 24 hours.

Customers took to Twitter to vent their frustrations which included calls cutting off halfway through.

In the meantime O2 has listed self-help advice for dealing with network errors.

This includes turning your phone off and on again to refresh your network connection, toggling your flight mode on and off and choosing the O2 network manually in your phone settings.

It also encouraged customers to try placing their sim in a different phone to check if the handset is faulty, and failing that to use its online troubleshooter to diagnose the problem.

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