People in four US states were left unable to make 911 calls on Wednesday night after widespread system issues.

Many services have been now restored after reports that lines went down for call centres across Nevada, Nebraska, South Dakota and Texas.

Federal officials have previously warned that the move to digital systems by emergency services has brought with it the risk of cyber-attacks.

But a cause of last night’s problems has not yet been given.

In Las Vegas, Nevada, issues were reported for several hours before police said services had been restored shortly after 22:00 local time (04:00 GMT).

Officers had earlier said they had been able to see when an emergency call was coming from a mobile device, meaning they could phone the caller back.

But they urged the city’s hundreds of thousands of residents against ringing to test the connection.

That was echoed by the Rapid City Police Department in South Dakota, which said shortly before 21:00 local time that local handlers had been “inundated” by callers trying to see if the line worked.

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