The chief of a US tech company has apologised after Suffolk and north Essex businesses were affected by a global IT outage caused by a software update.

George Kurtz, chief executive of CrowdStrike, the firm at the heart of the global IT outage on Friday, says he is "deeply sorry" for the incident that affected the likes of the Port of Felixstowe, Colchester Zoo, Stansted Airport, Greater Anglia stations and GP surgeries such as Woolpit Health Centre.

The tech boss confirmed the incident was not a cyber attack, but admitted that despite identifying the issue, it could still be "some time" before systems returned to normal.

Greater Anglia services were affected in the morning Greater Anglia services were affected in the morning (Image: Greater Anglia)

Reports of affected businesses began on Friday morning, when Greater Anglia confirmed that its systems were affected and the situation at stations was "being investigated with high importance".

Later, a spokesman for the Port of Felixstowe confirmed that it too had been affected.

A spokesman said a short while later: "Haulage operations have recommenced and we are working up to full capacity as soon as possible.”

Across England, GP surgeries reported being unable to book appointments or access patient records as their EMIS Web system went down.

Haulage operations at the port of Felixstowe were impactedHaulage operations at the port of Felixstowe were also affected (Image: Sarah Lucy Brown)

Around this time, Woolpit Health Centre said: "We cannot view clinical records to enable us to provide safe care, process prescriptions or make appointments. We ask that patients not telephone or attend the practice unless it is an urgent issue."

Meanwhile, Abbeycroft Leisure Centre in Bury St Edmunds added: "We're currently unable to take online payments or card payments at the centre."

Morrisons shoppers in Suffolk also reported contactless payments not working at many of its supermarkets.

READ MORE: Major disruption at Port of Felixstowe amid Microsoft issue

Queues at Stansted Airport reportedly snaked outside the main terminalQueues at Stansted Airport reportedly snaked outside the main terminal (Image: Archant)

At about 2pm, London Stansted Airport in north Essex confirmed that some airline check-in services were being done manually as a result of the outage.

Budget airline Ryanair added: “We’re currently experiencing disruption across the network due to a global third-party IT outage which is out of our control.

"Unfortunately, we’ve been forced to cancel a number of flights today (July 19) due to this global third party IT outage. Affected passengers have been notified and are advised to log into their myRyanair account."

READ MORE: Suffolk and Essex Business News

Later, Colchester Zoo confirmed it had to turn away customers due to issues with processing card payments.

A spokesperson said: "We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused and thank you for your patience and understanding whilst this issue is resolved."

Mr Kurtz said in his apology: "The fix will have to be applied to many computers around the world.

"If computers are getting blue screens and endless loops, it could be more difficult and take days and weeks."