Six men have been arrested for the attempted theft of fiber optic cable from a train station in Bogotá.

As reported by El Tiempo, the men were caught with 54 meters (177 feet) of rubberized cable, valued at more than seven million pesos ($1,738), and the heavy-duty tools they used to cut the cables.

The men had dug a hole in the pavement beneath the structure of the Barrio Santa Fe station on Monday afternoon (August 25).

Within minutes of digging the hole, the men then started stealing the fiber optic cables, essential for the operation of Bogotá's mass transit system.

Security guards at the station were alerted to noises from where the men were digging, before notifying the police. Once patrols arrived, they found six people inside the shaft, cutting the cables.

None of the six men were named by the police, but all were detained.

It's just the latest incident impacting a TransMilenio station, after a man was caught stealing fiber optic cable from a TransMilenio station in the Teusaquillo area of Bogotá last week. The man was trapped after entering the hole beneath the station and couldn't find his way out.

Disruption to telecom infrastructure has been a growing theme in Colombia. It has led the Bogotá Telecommunications Company (ETB) to display messages on their manholes stating that there are no copper cables.

Unlike copper, which has a high street value when sold for scrap, fiber does not have much of a material value.

Last month, five people were caught in Colombia with 399 meters (1,309 feet) of cable, valued at more than 16 million pesos ($4,000).