Damage to three submarine cables which link Europe and the Middle East has disrupted Internet and international telephone services in some parts of the Middle East and South Asia, wire services said quoting officials on Saturday.

A Chinapost news story filed from Cairo said the disruption had reduced Egypt’s Internet capacity by about 80 percent.

The International Cable Protection Committee, an association of submarine cable operators, said it was "aware of multiple submarine cable failures in the Eastern Mediterranean area that may be affecting the speed of Internet communications on some routes".

It said in a statement on its website it did not know what had caused the problem."