The Federal Investigation Agency immigration system at the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi was closed on Saturday for several hours after rats chewed up the internet cable of the system, sources said.

According to the FIA’s immigration, the record of the five flights last night was done manually and the authority “for the time being” was running their immigration system through an internet device.

They claimed that the cable was not repaired despite informing the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) several times.

Officials said that the cable had not been repaired despite that 15 hours had passed since the malfunction.

In a statement, airport manager Irfan Khan denied reports that rats cut the wires. Instead, he added that it was a fault that the authorities were trying to find out.

Initial reports said that the CAA and the airport manager could not ascertain the cause of the incident. But sources said that it was due to rats.

The fault in the integrated border management system (IBMS) was reported on Saturday morning, the CAA spokesperson said in a statement.

But the FIA operated the immigration process with the help of an alternate system, it said, adding that through this the flights were operated as per routine.

“FIA’s IBMS system is fully functional at the Jinnah International Airport. There was no evidence of rat causing the damage to the IBMS system,” the spokesperson said.