French media websites knocked offline
People queue to get a copy of Charlie Hebdo's new issue at a kiosk in Paris Stephane Mahe/Reuters

Update (11.30am):

Service provider Oxalide has now said that 90% of its services are back online but some are still suffering disruption. It added that the current level of information it has about the attack "does not allow it to say" who is responsible or "that it is a malicious act related to the news".

Original story (9.30am):

The websites of media publications including Le Parisien, Marianne, 20 Minutes and L'Express are offline due to a cyber-attack against the service provider hosting the websites.

According to reports from France, the attacks have hit seven websites who are hosted by service provider Oxalide. A statement on Twitter by Oxalide said:

Current incident on our infrastructure-our teams are being resolved

Oxalide added that the attack "hit the heart of the network" and its team is investigating. The web provider's own website is also now offline.

Sites known to be affected so far include the online portals of daily newspaper Le Parisien; radio station France Info; weekly magazine L'Express; online current affairs and culture magazine Slate.fr; free daily newspaper 20 Minutes; weekly magazine Marianne and investigate website Mediapart.

At the time of publication the websites of all are still offline. Le Parisien tweeted the following message:

Le Parisien site is currently unavailable. We apologise for any inconvenience caused and hope to be back soon.

Investigative website Mediapart also confirmed its website was unavailable:

"Our website is currently inaccessible. We do our best to restore the service as soon as possible. Thank you for your understanding"

There is currently no indication of who is responsible for the attack, but in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre last week, multiple French websites were attacked by hackers posting messages of support for Islamic extremism.

Hacktivist collective Anonymous has also been actively carrying out cyber-attacks in the wake of the massacre under the banner of #OpCharlieHebdo, knocking more than 70 jihadist-related websites offline this week.