Damage to SEA-ME-WE 4
On January 31, 2008, Internet services were widely disrupted in the Middle East and in the Indian subcontinent following damage to the SEA-ME-WE 4 and FLAG Telecom cables in the Mediterranean Sea. BBC News Online reported 70% disruption in Egypt and 60% disruption in India. Problems were reported in Bahrain, Bangladesh, Kuwait, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. The respective contributions of the two cable systems to this blackout is unclear. Network outage graphs suggest that the two breaks occurred at 0430 and 0800 UTC.
The cause of the damage has not been declared by either cable operator, but a number of news sources speculate that the damage was caused by a ship's anchor near Alexandria. According to the AFP, the Kuwait government attributes the breaks to "weather conditions and maritime traffic".The New York Times reports that the damage occurred to the two systems separately near Alexandria and near Marseilles.
Source:
Miss Wikipedia