Shops, offices, transport and health services across Gloucestershire that are reliant on Microsoft business software have been paralysed this morning by the "blue screen of death" as the consequences of a USA IT outage ripple around the world.

Described as a "massive outage", Washington-based Microsoft 365 said it was investigating the problem and would "continue to take mitigation actions". Here in the UK, Downing Street called an emergency Cobra meeting to coordinate stretegic response to the cyber meltdown.

Amid grounded flights and queues at Heathrow, Edinburgh and Stansted airports, Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which supplies security to Windows, is reported to have identified a 'content update' at the root of the issue, causing Microsoft systems to experience outages all around the world.

Sadly Gloucestershire has not escaped the fallout. 

Among casualties, the Aspen Medical Practice in Gloucester issued a statement for patients saying: "Some of our NHS IT systems have been affected by the global IT issues. IT systems at a small number of GP surgeries are currently impacted."

As a result of the confusion, health officials have been asking patients to contact the NHS only in a case of emergency. The issue is reported to be widespread across the UK with GPs unable to access patient records.

Elsewhere, there have been reports of payment processing errors for electric car charging leaving drivers struggling to continue their journeys from Gloucestershire's M5 Michaelwood Services, while National Rail Enquiries issued a warning to travellers of "widespread IT issues across the entire network".

With air traffic impacted from the outage, Cotswold Air Tattoo is reported to have been affected by the issue, but Punchline understands contigencies are being put in place for the ongoing event.

Gloucestershire Airport has also confirmed to Punchline that it is operating as normal, with no reported issues.