Instagram is down: Picture sharing site not working as users struggle to get online

At its peak, the website Down Detector, which tracks outages around the world, said it had had more than 2,000 reported problems

Instagram was down for many users on Saturday (REUTERS)

Instagram has gone down with hundreds of users claiming they cannot access the popular picture and video sharing site.

Hundreds of users have been unable to upload images to their computers and phones. Instead they have encountered an error message.

Other people received strange alerts when they tried to like posts and pictures.

At its peak, the website Down Detector, which tracks outages around the world, said it had had more than 2,000 reported problems.

It is unclear what is causing the problem, but The Independent has contacted the company for comment.

The app appeared to be working again at about 3.40pm UK time, and a temporary outage on Facebook seemed to have been rectified at about the same time.