MOBILE phone firm Orange was swamped with calls from angry North-East customers, after the network broke down yesterday.

Hundreds of Orange users in Newcastle and Gateshead found they had no service for several hours in the morning. It is the second time in a matter of days that the network has gone down.

A spokeswoman for the company said the problems were due to engineering problems. She said: "We can confirm that some Orange customers in the Newcastle area are currently experiencing difficulties making and receiving calls on the network.

"Faults with our supplier's equipment are being looked into by our engineers and those of our network suppliers.

"We apologise for any inconvenience caused."