Internet black hole approaches Britain

Millions of UK internet users could face a huge slowdown in service next week after Dutch firm KPNQwest, which handles almost half of Europe's internet traffic, went bankrupt.

The owner of Europe's biggest data network is threatening to shut down its system on Monday unless its creditors pay all their debts by then.

Britain's two biggest internet service providers, Freeserve and AOL, both use KPNQwest's network which means that all their traffic will disappear down a big internet black hole.

KPNQwest has hired 70 engineers to keep the network going while efforts are made to find a buyer but, according to The Sun, they have been told not to touch the system if it crashes.

The newspaper reported that 40 to 50 per cent of European internet traffic could be affected.