A major disruption at the community IT provider Regio IT on Tuesday caused widespread software problems across several municipalities in North Rhine‑Westphalia. The company said the issue stemmed from a power outage that led to a fault in one of its data centres.

Regio IT is working intensively with external partners to restore operations. At present, it is expected that productive service will not be possible for the remainder of the day.

Affected areas include the Hochsauerlandkreis, Oberbergische Kreis, and Soest district, as well as cities such as Aachen, Eschweiler and Düren. In the Hochsauerlandkreis, for example, vehicle registration and driver‑licence offices are impacted. In Aachen, appointments at the civil registry office and at the citizen service desk are often unavailable.