Google has confirmed that many users of its Gmail service were hit by a temporary failure of its Gmail webmail service in the early hours of the morning.
Due to the timing of the glitch with the Gmail contacts system, most of the users who experienced access problems to their Gmail-based email were in the US, Canada and India.
The problems began at about 1am UK time and a Google spokesman said the company has now implemented a fix for the problem.
"We have rolled out a fix now and hope to have resolved the problem," said a Google spokesman.
Google said the failure of the contacts system used by Gmail is preventing the email system from loading properly. The company also said that the new incoming messages were safe even if though users were not able to access their accounts.
