Google attributes interruption of Google Cloud, YouTube services to network congestion

US internet giant Google Inc. said Sunday that a high level of network congestion caused a five-hour outage of Google Cloud, YouTube, Gmail and other related services earlier in the day.

Users of Gmail, YouTube and other services provided by Google experienced errors or slow performance Sunday afternoon because of what Google claimed high online traffic volume in the eastern United States.

The internet giant announced Sunday evening that the problem has been resolved and its services have been restored.

"Update: YouTube is back and working again for the large majority of people! If you're still seeing an issue, it should be fixed soon," TeamYouTube tweeted.

Google did not specify what caused the network congestion that took down its services affecting millions of users.