Telecommunication outage hits Netherlands

The Netherlands has been hit by its largest telecommunications outage in years, with the 112 emergency numbers knocked out across the country.

The disruption, which lasted four hours, originated from national carrier KPN, and affected other providers linked to its network.

KPN said the cause was still unclear but it did not appear to be a hack.

Landlines and mobile phones linked to the KPN network were also affected, but it was the failure of the national emergency line that was most worrying.

Emergency services responded by putting out alternative contact information on social media.

The government has called on KPN to explain to justice and security minister Ferdinand Grapperhuis what went wrong.