Gozo’s double-insularity was made worse yesterday when an internet glitch left many parts of the island unconnected to the rest of the world.

The problem was flagged by Maltese visitors to the sister island who tried paying in shops with their credit cards at two different locations. Both Bank of Valletta and HSBC card machines use an internet connection to make transactions possible.

A woman said she had to pay by cheque at a restaurant even though it had a no cheques policy because neither her HSBC debit card nor her friend’s BOV credit card worked.

They were dining at a restaurant in Marsalforn but experienced similar problems when buying at a shop in Victoria.

The holidaymakers thought the problem was card-related but spokesmen for both major banks told this newspaper the issue had nothing to do with cards but was “an internet problem”. They said that, apart from Gozo, bank clients also experienced problems in St Paul’s Bay and Mellieħa.

Sources said communications company Go had problems with its telephone lines in the north of Malta and Gozo that caused the breakdown of internet services.

Attempts to contact Go yesterday proved to be futile.