Card payment system crash causes pre-holiday havoc in Belgium

Brussels (AFP) - Pre-holiday shopping and travel was thrown into chaos in Belgium on Monday when a bank card payment system broke down.

Across the country, card payment terminals worked very slowly if at all from mid-afternoon, according to Belgian newspaper websites and social media.

In the capital Brussels, it was a "mess in the stores, as well at parking garages and SNCB railway ticket offices," said the Tele Brussels TV station.

Customers at many shops were forced to leave to find a bank cash machine, which were mostly still functioning.

Long lines formed at many of them, according to photographs posted by social media users.

Some big retailers were able to switch to a backup system which records transactions for later processing, according to a spokesman for the Delhaize group of supermarkets.

Atos Worldline, which manages the bank card payment system in Belgium, told the Belga news agency it was still trying to determine the cause of the crash and did not forecast when it would have the problem fixed.

Its Belgium network on Saturday set a new record of 5.5 million transactions in the country of roughly 11 million people.