Leicester City Council's services back online after 'cyber incident'

Residents had been urged to only call the council in an emergency

Leicester City Council says most of its services are now back online after it was forced to shut them down due to a "cyber incident".

The council disabled its phone and computer systems on 7 March due to the issue, leading to prolonged disruption.

No further details about the nature of the incident have been shared and a criminal investigation into the incident is ongoing.

The authority said it was "not yet able to say" if data had been breached.

It has said almost all of the council's 5,000 staff, who have email addresses, were back online and could be contacted by phone or email.

Customers' service lines for social care, housing options and homelessness are also back up and running, the council said.

Also reinstated is an online portal, called My Account, which provides access to a range of council services such as waste and recycling, and school admissions.

Leisure centres are also operating as normal, computers and wi-fi in council libraries is available, and a customer service centre in Granby Street, in the city centre, will operate as normal from next week, the council said.

Andrew Shilliam, the council's director of corporate services, apologised for the inconvenience and thanked people for their patience and support.

He said: "Next week, I hope to report that the remaining phone lines have been restored and that we're making progress on dealing with a backlog of emails and requests."