Gmail users hit by service disruption

Search giant Google has confirmed its email service was hit by an outage yesterday evening.

The service is used by millions across the globe, but many were left unable to access it for at least an hour.

Google confirmed the problem began at 5:42pm on Tuesday evening, but stressed that less than two per cent of its user base were blighted by it.

However, in a further statement, the company said the total number of users affected was closer to 10 per cent.

"The problem with Google Mail should be resolved. We apologise for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and continued support," said Google in a statement.

"Please rest assured that system reliability is a top priority at Google, and we are making continuous improvements to make our systems better."

Prior to this problem, Gmail has only been down once in the last three years and seven times in total since the service went on general release in 2007.