TECHNICIANS are working to get Durham County Council's computer system up and running after it was struck by a virus.

The system's server at County Hall in Durham City was infected with the Nimda virus on Wednesday, and it spread to some of the terminals in the network.

As a precaution, the entire system was shut down until the virus could be eradicated.

About 4,000 computers were linked to the server, including those in offices around the county and libraries.

New anti-virus software has been installed. All of the terminals at County Hall have now been checked for the virus and are operating.

The rest of the network is expected to be working by Monday morning.

A council spokesman said: "It was more of an inconvenience rather than having a damaging effect."