Britain's top emergency team meet after cyber attack on NHS

Britain's official emergency committee, known as Cobra, met in London Saturday afternoon to discuss the cyber attack that has caused widespread disruption to the country's National Health Service (NHS).

Around 45 NHS organisations in England and Scotland, including hospitals, family doctor surgeries, and health services, were hit in the cyber attack Friday which prevented doctors, nurses and staff from accessing vital patient information.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd, who chaired the Cobra meeting, stressed there was no evidence any NHS patient data had been compromised in the attack.

"Cyber-security is a huge industry and we can all do better to protect our businesses and our personal information. I would expect NHS trusts to learn from this and to make sure that they upgrade," she said in a media interview.

NHS England said patients needing emergency treatment Saturday should go to accident and emergency departments at hospitals, or access emergency services as they normally would, but some NHS hospital trusts have asked people not to attend unless it is urgent.

In London, the largest NHS trust in the country cancelled all outpatient appointments at five of its hospitals on Saturday.

Meanwhile, media in Britain reported Saturday that the Japanese car builder Nissan said its factory in Sunderland, northeast England had been affected by the ransomware attack on computer systems.

Staff at the Nissan plant, which employs 6,000 people, are working to resolve the issue.

The Sunderland Echo newspaper quoted a Nissan worker saying he and his work colleagues were sent home shortly after 6 a.m. Saturday morning when they were due to start.

He told the newspaper: "The whole place has been shut down -- they sent us all home because the fire alarms and everything were going off. All the systems are down." Endit