Royal Mail has said it is facing serious disruption to its international export services following a “cyber incident”.
“We are temporarily unable to ship items to overseas destinations,” he said.
“Some customers may experience a delay or disruption to items that have already been shipped for export.
“Our import operations continue to run a full service with some minor delays.”
The company is temporarily advising customers to hold any export mail while it tries to resolve the issue
Royal Mail added that it had launched an investigation into the incident, was “working with external experts” and “sincerely apologises” to customers for the disruption.
Their import services remain operational, but are experiencing minor delays.
A spokesman for the National Cyber Security Center said: “We are aware of an incident affecting Royal Mail Group Ltd and are working with the company, together with the National Crime Agency, to understand the impact.”
The National Crime Agency confirmed it is also investigating the incident.
The incident comes at a difficult time for Royal Mail, which is currently embroiled in a bitter dispute over jobs, pay and conditions with the Communication Workers Union that led to a series of strikes last year.