HACKERS have claimed responsibility for a cyber attack in which Greater Manchester Police’s website was shut down last night.

A Lithuanian-based Twitter user under the name @n0w1337 claimed responsibility for the attack, which left the force’s website unavailable at around 8pm last night.

A second Turkish-based Twitter account, @g0d1337 also tweeted that they were responsible. Deputy Chief Constable Ian Hopkins from Greater Manchester Police said: “We are treating this as a denial of service attack, which is a malicious attempt to disrupt services.

“I want to reassure people that the server for the website is not connected to any other force system and that the information contained on the website is all public information.

“We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused to members of the public and we are working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible.”

A GMP spokesman added: “Greater Manchester Police can confirm that the Force website became unavailable at approximately 8pm last night. Initial checks did not reveal anything untoward and the system was quickly brought back online.

“However, a short time later the website became unavailable again and an individual on Twitter has since claimed responsibility for causing the website to crash.”

The tweets relating to the attack use the hastag #TangoDown - a military phrase used to refer to a terroist target that has been elliminated.

Another tweet by @n0w1337 appears to claim responsibility for shutting down Manchester City Council's website, though their webpage appears unaffected.