Sprint long distance customers in Lawrence and other parts of Kansas lost services for several hours today after a fiber wire was accidentally cut by a contractor.

The accident occurred somewhere between Lawrence and Topeka, said Charles Fleckenstein, a spokesman for Sprint headquarters in Overland Park.

Service was lost at 10:46 a.m. but had been restored by about 2:15 p.m. Fleckenstein didn’t yet know how many customers were affected.

For updates on this story, see the 6News reports at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Sunflower Broadband’s channel 6 and pick up a copy of Wednesday’s Journal-World.