LEICESTER City Council IT systems and phone lines have been temporarily shut down as a precaution while a cyber incident is investigated.
Richard Sword, strategic director of city developments and neighbourhoods at Leicester City Council said: "We have shut down some of our systems while we investigate a cyber incident, as a number of other local authorities have had to in recent months.
"We are liaising closely with the experts at the National Cyber Security Centre and law enforcement partners as part of our investigations.
"We apologise for the inconvenience this is causing, and will continue to do all we can to minimise any disruption to our front-line services.
“People can still access advice and information on our website, including emergency numbers if they need to contact us. We are asking people to use these numbers only in an emergency.
“We are not able to say when our investigations will be complete. We will provide updates in due course.”
Emergency numbers can be found via the home page of the council’s website.
The numbers will be different on weekdays/at the weekend - so please check the website before calling: www.leicester.gov.uk/your-council/how-we-work/our-website/emergency-numbers