Businesses in Staffordshire and Cheshire among those hit by IT outage
It's affecting companies across the world
Businesses in Staffordshire and Cheshire are among those hit by a worldwide IT outage.
There are reports of numerous issues this morning, including at airlines, broadcasters, hospitals and retailers.
GP practices across England took to social media to report they cannot access the EMIS Web system, with The Wilmslow Health Centre in Cheshire writing on X: "This is beyond the control of GP surgeries. Please bear with us until we have our IT systems back online."
Solihull Healthcare Partnership in the West Midlands said there is a "national issue" with EMIS Web.
It said on X: "Unfortunately there is a national issue with EMIS Web - our clinical computer system.
"This will affect our ability to book/consult with patients this morning.
"We will update patients when we can. We apologise for the disruption."
Manchester Airport is also reporting issues with some airlines, with reports that staff are having to use pen and paper.
Cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike is "actively working" to fix a "defect" in an update for Microsoft Windows users which sparked a global IT outage, the company's chief executive has said.
CrowdStrike chief executive George Kurtz said Mac and Linux users were not impacted by the fault and it was "not a security incident or cyber attack".
"The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed," Mr Kurtz wrote on X.
"We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website.
"We further recommend organizations ensure they're communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels. Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers."
Major infrastructure including airlines, railways, banks and media outlets ground to a halt after computer systems were knocked offline, and devices were showing the so-called "blue screen of death".