McDonald's 'technology outage' forces stores around world to temporarily close, company says

McDonald's has been hit by a system failure that closed stores and disrupted online and app orders in countries as far apart as Australia, Japan, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom.

"We are aware of a technology outage, which impacted our restaurants; the issue is now being resolved," McDonald's (MCD) said in a statement to CNN Friday.

"We thank customers for their patience and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Notably, the issue is not related to a cybersecurity event."

McDonald's gave no further details about the cause or geographical extent of the outage, and CNN was not immediately able to confirm reports that restaurants in the United States were also affected.

McDonald's Japan said in a post on X Friday: "Many stores across the country have temporarily suspended operations."

In the UK, Maria Avram, who works at a McDonald's restaurant in London, told CNN that there was a system outage between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. local time (2 a.m. and 3 a.m. ET), and staff had to take orders in person and tell colleagues in the kitchen what to cook.

A spokesperson for McDonald's Australia told CNN that its restaurants nationwide were affected by the outage.

Problems were also reported in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

McDonald's Hong Kong said on Facebook: "Due to a computer system failure, the mobile ordering and self-ordering kiosks are not functioning. Please order directly at the restaurant counter."

The fast food chain's McDelivery service in Taiwan said on its website: "The system is under maintenance, and online and telephone ordering services are temporarily suspended."

Taiwanese broadcaster TVBS cited McDonald's Taiwan as saying Friday that some of its eateries, as well as McDelivery, were temporarily unable to conduct transactions due to internet disruptions. McDonald's assured customers that it is investigating the situation and making necessary repairs, TVBS said.

Of the countries known to be affected, Japan has the largest number of McDonald's stores - nearly 3,000 - followed by the UK, with close to 1,500 restaurants, and Australia, with just over 1,000.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

(The-CNN-Wire & 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.)