Netflix has stopped working, leaving users unable to get on the site.

The streaming service simply refused to load when users navigated to its website. Problems were also reported by those using the app, though some who were unable to access the website claimed they had done so through other platforms such as the version of Netflix on phones or smart TVs.

The outage comes as workers around the world are in their houses as part of physical distancing in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Tracking website Down Detector showed problems across the world, though they were largely focused in Europe. The outage came at around 6pm on the continent, likely meaning that many people had just finished work and were attempting to access the website.

Netflix's status page, which usually indicates whether the company is aware of its site being down, does not include a message indicating whether it is online or not. Instead, it has a message indicating that the coronavirus outbreak means that it could be slow to respond.

"Due to the COVID-19 crisis thousands of our customer support agents are now having to work from home, making it harder to support your calls," it says. "So we are seeing higher than normal wait times.

It indicates that the site is no longer running phone help, offering only live chat and online support. "We’re sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for your patience," the message reads.

The Netflix customer service Twitter account responded to some users being hit by issues, but did not indicate whether there was a widespread outage or if any fix was on its way.