The Scottish Government website, gov.scot., has crashed following Nicola Sturgeon's announcement of her plans for bringing Scotland out of lockdown.

More than 100,000 people tried to download it in the first minute, Ms Sturgeon's chief of staff revealed. 

The First Minister published her detailed four-stage route map as she gave a statement at Holyrood and faced questions from MSPs.

This led to thousands of people across the country trying to access the gov.scot website to find out what the new guidelines meant for them as the site went down around 12:45pm.

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Ms Sturgeon announced the suppression of the virus has allowed for a gradual and careful easing of lockdown restrictions in Scotland.

Despite outlining the new moves, the First Minister said that they are not currently in place, and said that there is a chance the stricter measures could be reapplied if the spread of the virus increases.

She said: “I hope they will bring some improvement to people’s wellbeing and quality of life, start to get our economy moving again, and start to steer us safely towards a new normality.

READ MORE: Coronavirus: Nicola Sturgeon publishes route map out of lockdown

“It’s important to stress, though, that while the permitted reasons to be out of your house will increase, the default message during phase one will remain ‘Stay at Home’ as much as possible.