Berlin, Germany: Flights were temporarily suspended at Berlin airport Friday as a global IT outage hit Germany, with problems also reported at other airports, a hospital and the carmaker Tesla.

A spokeswoman for Berlin Brandenburg airport said flights were gradually resuming at around 11:00 am (0900 GMT) after the "technical problem" brought air traffic to a halt earlier in the morning.

"Departures are taking place," the spokeswoman said, adding however that there "may be longer waiting times" as "everything now has to be gradually ramped up again".

The disruption came as a major outage wrought havoc on computer systems worldwide, grounding flights in the United States, derailing television broadcasts in the UK and impacting telecommunications in Australia.

In Germany, disturbances were also reported at Stuttgart and Cologne-Bonn airports.

The University Medical Centre Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH) said all non-urgent operations had been cancelled at its hospitals in Kiel and Luebeck.

"The outpatient clinics at both sites will also be closed," it said in a statement.

Production at US carmaker Tesla's plant outside Berlin was also "partially affected" by the outage, spokeswoman Kathrin Schira told AFP.

German flagship carrier Lufthansa said it had been only "slightly affected", with the problems in Berlin causing the biggest disruption.

Microsoft said in a statement it was taking "mitigation actions" in response to service issues.

It was not clear if those were linked to the global outages. - AFP