Royal Mail hit by cyber incident - live updates
Royal Mail has been left unable to send letters or parcels overseas after the postal service suffered a crippling "cyber incident".
A company statement warned customers to expect delays or disruptions to packages already sent and urged others not to attempt to send mail internationally while the problems continued.
It is understood the problem was first discovered on Tuesday morning and that staff at Royal Mail have been attempting to uncover the cause since then.
Six sites are affected, including a huge sorting facility located next to Heathrow Airport, where most outgoing international mail is sorted before leaving the UK.
The company, which is considered part of Britain's critical national infrastructure, is in touch with the police and at least one security service following the incident.
A Royal Mail spokesman said: "We have asked customers temporarily to stop submitting any export items into the network while we work hard to resolve the issue.
"Some customers may experience delay or disruption to items already shipped for export.
"Our import operations continue to perform a full service with some minor delays.
"Our teams are working around the clock to resolve this disruption and we will update customers as soon as we have more information."
The National Cyber Security Centre has confirmed it is assisting the company, along with the National Crime Agency.
A company statement warned customers to expect delays or disruptions to packages already sent and urged others not to attempt to send mail internationally while the problems continued.
It is understood the problem was first discovered on Tuesday morning and that staff at Royal Mail have been attempting to uncover the cause since then.
Six sites are affected, including a huge sorting facility located next to Heathrow Airport, where most outgoing international mail is sorted before leaving the UK.
The company, which is considered part of Britain's critical national infrastructure, is in touch with the police and at least one security service following the incident.
A Royal Mail spokesman said: "We have asked customers temporarily to stop submitting any export items into the network while we work hard to resolve the issue.
"Some customers may experience delay or disruption to items already shipped for export.
"Our import operations continue to perform a full service with some minor delays.
"Our teams are working around the clock to resolve this disruption and we will update customers as soon as we have more information."
The National Cyber Security Centre has confirmed it is assisting the company, along with the National Crime Agency.
