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An EE mobile phone mast has been set on fire near Ayr leaving thousands of mobile phone customers with no signal.

Vandals torched the mast, which sits on private farmland outside the town, on Thursday during the cover of darkness.

EE has slammed the destruction as reckless, harmful and dangerous as it leaves mobile phone users without service during the coronavirus pandemic.

Farmer George McNaughton, who saw the blaze, rang 999 and described it as an “inferno.”

The 43-year-old told the Ayrshire Post : “It was a raging inferno. There is plenty of evidence to suggest it was deliberate.

"The cables are all broken. Whoever did it got away quickly. They must have escaped through the fields. I am not happy about it.”

(Image: Ayrshire Post)

George who wants to raise awareness of rural crime said the fire burnt itself out after an engineer disconnected the electricity. He advises others to keep an eye on masts.

The blaze comes after masts were set alight elsewhere in the country over false conspiracy theories claiming a link between 5G and coronavirus.

The local mast was targeted even though it is not even 5G. It is not known whether the suspects launched the attack over Covid-19 fears.

People living in postal code regions KA5, KA4 and KA6, which includes Tarbolton, Mauchline, parts of Coylton, and other areas in Ayrshire have lost mobile phone service since Friday.

An EE spokesman said: “ Our engineers are assessing the cause of the EE network outage, affecting KA4 and KA5 postcode areas. If it transpires that it was caused by an attack, which looks likely, we will help Police Scotland identify those responsible.

(Image: Ayrshire Post)

“To deliberately take away mobile connectivity at a time when people, including the emergency services, need it more than ever, is reckless, harmful and dangerous.

“This site serves thousands of people in the Ayrshire area, providing vital 2G, 3G and 4G connectivity. We will try to restore full coverage as soon as possible.”

Police and two fire engines rushed to the incident, which took place around 10.45pm on Thursday night.

A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: "Enquiries are ongoing and the fire is currently being treated as suspicious.”

A Scottish Fire & Rescue spokesman said: “This was 10.44pm on Thursday. It was a fire involving a mobile phone mast and two fire appliances were sent, but ultimately we were not required to extinguish any fire.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact Police Scotland on 101, quoting incident 3972 of 9 April.

Alternatively it can be reported anonymously to the charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.