Instagram down: Social media app suffers huge global outage with tens of thousands reporting issues

Instagram has suffered a huge outage with tens of thousands of users across the globe reporting issues with the social media app.

The worst affected areas include the UK and much of the US, with more than 23,000 people saying they were unable to access the social network on Thursday night.

Users were unable to refresh their feeds on the mobile app and a server error page was shown to those trying to use the desktop version.

Many furious customers took to Twitter to vent their outrage, with the hashtag #instagramdown quickly becoming a top trend worldwide amid the outage.

According to website DownDetector, Los Angeles and San Francisco appeared to be the worst hit regions of the US.

Instagram said it was working to resolve the problem.

A statement from the social media giant read: "We're aware that some people are having trouble accessing their Instagram accounts.

"We're working quickly to fix the issue."

In an updated statement in the early hours of Friday, Instagram apologised for the technical problems and said the app had since "fully recovered".