Royal Mail hit by cyber attack

In a statement on its website, the company said: "Royal Mail is experiencing severe service disruption to our international export services following a cyber incident.

"We are temporarily unable to despatch items to overseas destinations. We strongly recommend that you temporarily hold any export mail items while we work to resolve the issue. Items that have already been despatched may be subject to delays. We would like to sincerely apologise to impacted customers for any disruption this incident is causing."

Royal Mail said its import operations continue to perform a full service, with some minor delays.

It added that it was "working around the clock" to resolve this issues.

"We immediately launched an investigation into the incident and we are working with external experts. We have reported the incident to our regulators and the relevant security authorities," it said.