PELDERLY folk in East Lancashire have been unable to get access to their pensions because of a fire in a service tunnel in Manchester, it was revealed today.

More than 100,000 phone lines were out of action following the fire under Manchester city centre on Monday.

But today, five days after the blaze, a spokesman for Royal Mail admitted its on-line banking system had also been effected by the fire - which meant people using cards to access pensions and a variety of benefits were unable to do so.

Peter Ryan, 67, of Preston Old Road, Blackburn, discovered the problem when he went to his Post Office at Cherry Tree on Monday.

He said: "We have the swipe cards instead of a pension book and after my wife got her money the system went down. Obviously it is not just me who has been effected, there must be hundreds of us.

"The Post Office told me it could be down for seven to 10 days and there is nothing they can do.

"When you are a pensioner the money is like your wage and although it won't cause me tremendous problems it could for others."

BT engineers have been working since Monday to lay replacement cables. Spokesman Graham Moore said: "We have had reports of this from far and wide. Our on-line services are affected as well as payment by Switch card. This means people who access benefits via a card account cannot do so.

"We are advising customers whose post office has been affected by the fire to contact their post office where they can be advised as to where they can use their card.

"In special circumstances the sub post master can make special arrangements for that claimant to receive some cash."