Washington: An attack on mobile phone towers in Britain over the weekend comes as a conspiracy theory connecting 5G to the spread of coronavirus continue to gain momentum on social media.

Four of Vodafone's towers were attacked in the past weekend, according to the multinational telecommunications company. Three other telecommunications companies joined Vodafone in condemning the attack.

A fire-damaged tower in Birmingham, UK. Credit:Bloomberg

"Please help us make this stop," the companies said in their joint statement, asking for public assistance.

Stopping the attacks is critical to keeping communities connected, said Vodafone and the three other companies that serve British mobile phone customers. The companies said the baseless claims about the link between 5G and coronavirus have led to abuse of company engineers and, in some cases, prevented essential network maintenance from taking place.