BT internet down: Broadband connection not working for some UK users

The outages have affected BT customers across the country

(AFP)

BT's national internet network has been hit by major outages, a number of users have reported.

According to DownDetector, which monitors internet service disruptions, almost 20,000 reports had been made about BT since around 2:30PM on Tuesday afternoon.

A number of customers took to social media to vent their frustrations with the outage, with some businesses reporting that they were unable to process orders, take payments or communicate with customers while their internet systems were down.

Writing on Twitter, BT said: "Sorry if you're experiencing network problems. Engineers are on site now. We will keep you updated."

BT is one of the UK's 'Big Four' internet service providers, along with Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media. They have over 7 million customers in the UK, although it's not yet clear how many have been affected by the service disruptions.

Two hours after the disruptions began, customers began to report that their connections were slowly returning.

A BT spokesperson told The Independent: "Large numbers of customers have been experiencing temporary issues with their broadband services this afternoon. Customers can still receive and make calls as normal."

"We've been working hard to fix the issue and are glad to report that nearly every customer affected is now reconnected, approximately two hours after the problem started."

"We apologise to any affected customers for the inconvenience."

The spokesperson also said there was "no evidence" to suggest that BT was subject to a malicious attack.