The glitch affected other agencies functioning under the ministry's purview.

Normal operations were restored after a few hours.

The interior ministry told ERR the disruption was caused by bugs in the ministry's IT and development center, SMIT.

SMIT was involved in restoring services; the center's director, Mart Nielsen, said a core network failure had been to blame.

"We acted as quickly as possible to restore the normal functioning of critical services. We sincerely apologize to all affected by this situation," Nielsen said.

Since 112 in particular was experiencing issues, the recommendation was given that this number only be called in true emergency situations, where life, well-being or property were in imminent danger.

Critical services under the ministry's remit were back online by 6.30 p.m. Thursday, the ministry said.

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