BlackBerry suffers service outage across EMEA

Reports suggest a server problem at a datacentre in Slough

Owners of BlackBerry smartphones across Europe, the Middle East and Africa are experiencing service problems, making them unable to browse the web, send email or instant messages.

Earlier this afternoon BlackBerry released a message on Twitter indicating it was aware of the problem and has since issued the following statement:

"We are working to resolve an issue currently affecting some BlackBerry subscribers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. We're investigating and apologise to our customers for any inconvenience caused while this is being resolved."

The BBC has reported that the problem originated in a datacentre in Slough, where a server handling BlackBerry services for the affected regions crashed.