An elederly Georgian woman has been accused of shutting down the internet service throughout much of Georgia and the whole of Armenia.

75-year-old Aiyastan Shakaryan was scavenging for copper near a railroad track in eastern Georgia when she severed a fibre optics cable that ran parallel and shut down the World Wide Web across both countries. Armenia and much of Georgia were off line for several hours before the damage was discovered.

Zurab Gvenetadze, Georgia's Interior Ministry spokesman announced that Shakaryan had been charged with property destruction, which can carry a penalty of up to three years in jail. He went on to explain that it was likely that the pensioner would receive a lighter sentence because of her age.

Shakaryan gave an interview on Georgian television channel Imedi on Thursday in which she professed her innocence. Scavenging for copper is a popular practice across much of Georgia and is often utilised a source of income by citizens of the economically struggling country.

The incident has appeared to some to be a frightening indication of just how east it is to cut one country off from the rest of the world and had raised questions about security and safety. Memebers of the public have been astounded at how easy it is to disable the internet and are calling for greater security measures to be taken to ensure that a similar incident does not occur.

Some members of the Armenian government are acalling for an official apology from Georgia and are asking for an official in depth investigation into the incident. Many believe that the incident will pave the way for giant interent conglomerates to take over the running of maintenace of internet services in Eastern Europe to ensure this does not happen again.

Georgia's 380 mile fibre optic cable internet network is owned by Georgian Railway Telecoms, who are also responsible for the network's security. A spokesman for the company insisted that the cables were ‘guarded at the highest level'. However, a spokesperson for Armentel, Armenia's largest internet service provider commented that the lapse in security would force the internet company to consider ‘diversifying our chanels'.

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