WhatsApp briefly goes offline in parts of Europe

London: WhatsApp, a messaging service owned by Facebook Inc , suffered outages in parts of Europe for a short period on Thursday, leaving people unable to send or receive messages.

"We`ve restored service back to 100 percent for everyone and we apologise for the inconvenience," a WhatsApp spokesman told Reuters.

He, however, did not provide details on what led to the outage, which began shortly after 4.30 p.m. UK time on New Year`s eve.

The problems were primarily centered in the UK and Western Europe, according to DownDetector, a website that provides realtime overview of Internet and mobile services.