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The outage appears to be affecting Windows PCs globally, including Sky News in the UK which was not able to broadcast live TV on Friday morning.

Businesses including banks, airlines, train companies, telecommunications companies, TV and radio broadcasters, and supermarkets have been taken offline following a mass global outage.

Major US airlines including American Airlines, Delta Airlines and United Airlines have been grounded, while airports in Germany, Amsterdam and Spain are also reporting issues.

It is believed the issue is related to an issue at global cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike and Microsoft - although it is unknown if it is the same issue affecting airports and train services across the globe.

Microsoft said on Friday morning that it was continuing to address the "lingering impact" of its 365 applications and services that are in a "degraded state" while Crowdstrike said in an automated message that it was aware of reports of crashes.

The outage appears to be affecting Windows PCs globally, including Sky News in the UK which not able to broadcast live TV first thing on Friday morning.

Ryanair, Europe's largest airline by passenger numbers, warned customers of potential disruptions which it said would affect "all airlines operating across the network," though it did not specify the nature of the disruptions.

While passengers at Edinburgh Airport were unable to use automated boarding pass scanners and monitors at security displayed a message saying "server offline", according to a Reuters witness.

The airport had reverted to checking boarding passes manually, the witness said.

The Metropolitan Police said it has not been affected, and everything seems to be working normally, while some GP surgeries have reported problems.

Grimethorpe Surgery in Barnsley said it had no access to the clinical system, pointing to an issue with EMIS Web - a system that allows healthcare practitioners to view and contribute to a patient's healthcare records.

Train cancellations likely

Also in the UK, Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern - all four of Govia Thameslink Railway's brands - said its services were experiencing widespread IT issues.

"We are unable to access driver diagrams at certain locations, leading to potential short-notice cancellations, particularly on the Thameslink and Great Northern networks," the company said.

"Additionally, other key systems, including our real-time customer information platforms, are also affected."

National Rail said its IT teams are "actively investigating to determine the root cause of the problem".

Out-of-date prices at London Stock Exchange

The London Stock Exchange is among the businesses that have been affected by the global outage, Sky News' business correspondent, Ian King, said.

A statement posted on the exchange's website early said that a technical issue was being investigated with the publication of RNS - the exchange's Regulatory News Service - announcements.

When trading began at 8am this morning, the exchange's website was still showing prices from the close on Thursday evening and continues to do so.

The FTSE-100 opened 50 points lower - around 0.62% - at the open but no prices were available on the exchange's website, King said.

Other major European stock indices have also opened to the downside this morning, with the DAX in Germany down by 0.55% half an hour into the session, while the CAC-40 in France and the MIB in Italy down by 0.45% apiece.

Users on the subreddit for cyber security firm Crowdstrike reported issues in India, the United States and New Zealand.

While users in Australia began reporting issues early on Friday, stating they had been locked out of their workstations.

Within hours, Australia's National Security Coordinator said it was aware of the large-scale technical outage affecting a number of companies and services across the country.

It said there was currently no information to suggest the outage is a cyber security incident.