A cyber attack has hit an East Lancashire authority with staff actively working with security officers to address the issue.

Burnley Council fell victim to the attack, leaving the website temporarily down with the IT team working to resolve the issue and restore full functionality as soon as possible.

Currently they do not believe that any data has been compromised.

Lukman Patel, chief executive of Burnley Council said “We have alerted the NCSC (National Cyber Security Centre) to this issue, and we are actively working with our IT team and cyber security officers to address this issue.

“Our priority is to restore our online services and ensure the security of our systems. We appreciate the patience and understanding of our residents during this time.”

Numerous councils across the North West, including Tameside Council and Salford City Council have also been targeted.

Read more: Blackburn College targeted in "cyber security incident"

The attacks, known as distributed denial of service attacks, flood websites with traffic and cause significant disruption.

Over the weekend Blackburn College was also affected by a cyber-attack, with issues across the network.

The college has said that they are dealing with the situation and are communicating with both staff and students – after concerns arose regarding potential data breaches.

Guidance has been provided to the affected local authorities by the National Cyber Security Centre.