Police Scotland's control room in the Lothians was closed by IT problems.

The Bilston Glen centre - which handles urgent 999 and routine calls from the public across eastern and central Scotland - was at the centre of this summer's M9 tragedy.

The temporary closure was revealed by Unison, which represents staff at the centre. Calls were diverted elsewhere.

The union tweeted: "Members telling us Bilston Glen service centre IT has been down since 3:30am this morning."

It added: "Hearing Police Scotland call takers are sitting in a minibus waiting on a decision on where to take them.

"Our members telling us they just take this as an everyday occurrence, this is what the call taking job is now."

The building was not shut as workers moved to resolve issues.

Unison has opposed sweeping cuts to control rooms across Scotland as Police Scotland sought to remove duplication of resources following the merger of eight territorial forces.

This process was put on hold after this August's death of Lamara Bell, who lay injured in a car undiscovered for 72 hours after police failed to act on a 101 call to Bilston Glen reporting her accident.