Internet access across large parts of the Middle East and India has been severely disrupted after two undersea cables in the Mediterranean were damaged.

Up to 70 per cent of the network in Egypt and 60 per cent in India have been hit by the disruption.

Industry experts believe it could take a week to repair the cables and bring a full service back online.

International phone calls to the regions, which have also hit by the disruption, have been re-routed.

An official at United Arab Emirates ISP Du claimed that a fault in the network between Alexandria in Egypt and Palermo in Italy was responsible for the outage.

In a statement issued to customers Du referred to a "degradation in internet services and international voice calls for some customers during peak times".

"We are working actively with submarine cable system operators Flag Telecom and SEA-ME-WE 4 to ascertain the reasons for the cables being cut," the ISP said.