Businesses, schools and public services across Farnham have been disrupted by a global Microsoft outage, leaving staff unable to access emails and vital online systems.

Estate agents have been unable to market properties, teachers have had to adapt lesson plans and opticians have faced difficulties making NHS referrals as the disruption spreads across the town.

Sam Ridgers, of Andrew Lodge Estate Agents, said the outage had thrown the firm's working day into disarray.

He said: “We don’t know if our meetings are going ahead. It’s postponed our whole day.

“We can’t email brochures or contracts to our vendors, meaning we can’t put houses on the market.

“It’s been a real spanner in the works. We are worried we will be bombarded with emails when it all comes online. We just have to wait and see.”

The Bush Hotel in Farnham has also been affected, with staff unable to access booking information or previous correspondence with guests.

Receptionist Francesca Heaton said: “We can’t even search our emails. Luckily it’s quiet today or we would be in real trouble.

“A major issue is we can’t receive bookings, and we can’t see if a room has been pre-paid.

“When our guests call about past email chains, we can’t access them. It’s mainly affected our events team as they need access to the email chains.

“Unfortunately, we can’t tell how much we have been affected until it comes back online.”

At St Andrew's Church School, the outage has disrupted communications with parents and left teachers having to find alternative ways of delivering lessons.

Receptionist Carolyn Wickham said: “Our emails are down, and it caused a few problems with things like parents getting in touch regarding pupil absences.”

Teachers have also experienced problems accessing SharePoint, disrupting lesson plans and forcing them to adapt their teaching.

However, pupils have been largely unaffected, with children wearing Pudsey ears and enjoying the excitement of a bake sale held the previous day.

Farnham Town Council has also experienced email problems, although officials have reassured residents that Saturday's Christmas lights switch-on will go ahead as planned.

A council spokesperson said: “We have been affected as our emails are down, and it has caused an issue with an event we were running at the Bush Hotel today.

“But we are managing, and there is no effect on tomorrow's Christmas lights switch-on.”

The disruption has extended to Surrey Police, which has been unable to receive online incident reports.

A police spokesperson said: “Until this is resolved, if your report is time-critical but not an emergency, please dial 101.

“If your report can wait until Microsoft restores its service, please submit an online form once you are able to do so.”

Meanwhile, Specsavers in Farnham has reported difficulties making referrals to the NHS.

A spokesperson said: “It is quite frustrating. We can’t do any referrals, we can’t reach the NHS if we need to send someone for further check-ups.

“We just have to wait and see what happens. It’s not so much our booking system, it’s more the referrals.”

The disruption comes amid a widespread Microsoft service outage affecting organisations reliant on its email and cloud-based systems.