Technology giant Microsoft has apologised after thousands of people across the world reported issues with its products, ranging from email service Outlook to the hit game Minecraft.

Downdetector, which tracks websites, showed thousands had reported problems on Tuesday afternoon.

The incident comes less than two weeks after a major global IT outage left over eight million computers using Microsoft systems inaccessible, impacting healthcare and travel, after a flawed software update by the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.

Microsoft said it had implemented a fix for the problem which "shows improvement", and it will monitor the situation "to ensure full recovery".

But it has separately told people it has "no ETA" for how long the issue would take to resolve.

The tech giant previously said it was "investigating reports of issues connecting to Microsoft services globally".

"We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience," it said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

"Our experts are currently investigating the situation in order to resolve it as soon as possible."

It comes hours before Microsoft is set to announce its latest financial reports at 2230 BST.

An alert on the technology giant's service status website said the outage impacted Microsoft Azure - the cloud computing platform behind many of its services - and Microsoft 365, which includes systems like Microsoft Office and Outlook.

It also listed its cloud systems Intune and Entra as among those impacted.

"It seems slightly surreal that we’re experiencing another serious outage of online services from Microsoft," said computer security expert Professor Alan Woodward.

“The culprit appears to be network infrastructure but you would have hoped that with such important cloud-based systems there would not be a single point of failure.

“You’d expect Microsoft’s network infrastructure to be bomb-proof."

Who has been affected?

The outage appears to have also impacted other services which rely on Microsoft's platforms, with Cambridge Water among those affected.

"Due to worldwide issues with Microsoft Azure, a problem with our website is affecting several services including MyAccount and PayNow," it said in a post on X.

The HM Courts and Tribunals Service - which is responsible for the administration of criminal, civil and family courts and tribunals in England and Wales - said it was aware of issues with "multiple online services".

Some customers of NatWest have also reported issues.

A spokesperson told the BBC: “We are aware that some customers experienced difficulties accessing our webpages today. This was linked to the issues reported by Microsoft Azure which has affected some Microsoft services globally.

“The issue has now been resolved and our webpages are functioning as normal. We apologise to customers for any inconvenience caused.”

Meanwhile, top flight Dutch football team FC Twente tweeted an update to their fans to say its ticketing website and club app were unavailable to supporters as a result of the outage.

Additional reporting by Chris Vallance and Liv McMahon