The Scottish Parliament's petitions website has crashed without explanation and has now been unable to take signatures for upwards of 30 hours.

A petition from the Justice for Megrahi committee has drawn almost 1500 signatures since it went live on 8 October. Due to Parliamentary rules it closes for signature on 28 October.

"Having been online accepting signatures for only thirteen complete days at the Scottish Parliament’s Petitions Site, the Justice for Megrahi petition has suffered a technical glitch. Just as the petition was about to break through the 1,500 mark, possibly a record for the parliamentary site, the system crashed today," said a report on Newsnet Scotland.

A statement appears on the Scottish Parliament's Public Petitions Committee's webpage says: "Unfortunately, the Scottish Parliament’s e-petitions website is currently experiencing technical difficulties and is temporarily unavailable. We are working on a solution to resume the service as quickly as possible. Once the service is back online, users will be able to sign e-petitions as normal. Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience caused."

No detail is given as to the cause of the technical difficulty.

"The petition has attracted huge support in the short period that it has been up and running despite the almost non-existent press coverage, particularly over the border," said Newsnet.