A system set up by government for people to apply for permission to go out apparently crashed just a couple of hours after coming online because of heavy use.

The 8998 number that people should text appeared to overload and would not respond within a few minutes after officials said it would.

One user said he texted the number at around 7pm because he wanted to go for a run but received no response over an hour later.

Authorities announced a short while ago that due to technical reasons the SMS service is ‘down’ and urged people to use the forms should they wish to go outdoors.