Skype service down for users across the world

A technical problem with Skype left many people across the world unable to use Skype and make calls.

Affected users have been reporting that their contacts are showing up as offline, even when they have signed into the service.

The problems started shortly after 9am.

Skype-owner Microsoft said it had "detected an issue with the status settings" on Skype that show if someone is online or not and that is was working towards resolving the problem.

However, the issue did not affect the web version of the product, which can be used to make calls and send instant messages.

Many users of the service - including from the UK, Australia, Japan and Canada - posted on Twitter about the issues they were having connecting using the hashtag #SkypeDown.

Some Skype users are reporting that the service is back up and running for them.