NatWest has apologised to customers after an outage left them unable to access the bank’s app and online banking services.

Customers complained on Tuesday morning that they had been unable to log in to their bank accounts on its smartphone app.

Those who opened the app were greeted with a message saying: “We’re sorry, some kind of error has occurred when trying to establish a connection between your device and ourselves.”

In an online support page, NatWest told customers to use telephone banking or visit a branch. It said: “Some of our customers are experiencing issues with our mobile app and Online Banking service. We’re sorry for any inconvenience caused and we’re working hard getting everything back up and running for you. We will share an update when we have more information.

“If you need to complete a transaction you can continue to do this using our telephone banking service or alternatively you can visit one of our branches or ATMs.

“If you are looking to make a payment with us today, please consider sending money another way. You can still use your debit or credit card to make payments and get cash from ATM’s, branches and the Post Office.”

Reports of the outage started at around 5:30am according to the website DownDetector.

Read the latest updates below.