Islamabad, Oct 9 (IANS): Islamabad has said it will check claims that Britain acquired vast amounts of communications data from inside Pakistan by secretly hacking into routers made by US company Cisco.

The new claims by whistleblower and former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden have a potential to cause a rift between Pakistan and Britain, The Nation reported on Friday.

Foreign office spokesman Qazi Khalilullah on Thursday termed the claims as "report of an individual".

Snowden caused a sensation by leaking top secret information about the US National Security Agency in 2013.

"This is an individual's report... We have to check how credible this news is and then we will be in a position to take any action," the spokesman said.

In an interview with BBC's Panorama programme, Snowden said British spies can hack into telephones remotely with a simple text message and make audio recordings or take photos without owners knowing.

He added that Britain got vast amounts of communications data from inside Pakistan by secretly hacking into the routers.