BBC websites go down worldwide [Updated]

It's not every day a website as large as the BBC disappears off the face of the Earth, but today is one of those days.

As of around 10 minutes ago news.bbc.co.uk, bbc.co.uk and pretty much every other URL pointed anywhere near the BBC stopped responding - and if Twitter is anything to go by the issue appears to be worldwide.

Is this the beginning of the end of the world? Probably not, but you wouldn't think it looking through the various tweets using the hashtag #bbcblackout!

There is currently no official word from the BBC as to why they're offline - we sure do hope some poor intern hasn't tripped over a wire somewhere!

Update: And it's back!

Panic over people, the BBC is alive once more. We're hearing from Beeb fans far and wide that all BBC online services are returning to normal (including BBC staff email), including the ever-popular iPlayer.

All in it appears the BBC was wiped off the internet for a little over 30 minutes, though that depends on exactly who you ask, and the reason appears to be a rather mundane one - network failure.