Greggs is “experiencing issues accepting payments” as reports suggest shops across the country have been forced to shut.

IT outages affected the bakery chain’s branches on Wednesday morning, causing some to put up temporary “closed” notices on their doors.

Others asked customers to place orders outside using the Greggs mobile app before food could be given to them.

Stores in cities including London, Manchester, Cardiff and Glasgow have reportedly been affected, with customers unable to purchase items.

A Greggs spokesperson said: “We are currently experiencing issues accepting payments in our shops.

“We are working to resolve this as soon as possible.”

Greggs operates more than 2,450 shops across the UK.

It comes in the week after similar problems with the McDonald's app were reported.

That issue was resolved on the same day, with a McDonald’s spokesman saying: “We are aware of a technology outage which impacted our restaurants.

"The issue has now been resolved in the UK and Ireland.

"We thank customers for their patience and apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.

"The issue is not related to a cybersecurity event.”