Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has instructed factory staff to stay at home until at least Tuesday as the company continues to grapple with the fallout from a cyber attack.

The attack on the weekend forced the company to take vital IT systems offline, which has affected car sales and production.

Production remains halted at car factories in Halewood on Merseyside and Solihull in the West Midlands, as well as at its engine manufacturing centre in Wolverhampton.

The situation remains under review and output could remain suspended for longer.

Car sales have also been heavily disrupted, although the BBC understands some transactions have been able to take place.

The company, which is owned by India’s Tata Motors, shut down its systems on Sunday in order to limit potential damage from the cyber attack.

It is now working to restore them in a controlled manner, but this is understood to be a highly complex process. It is also introducing work-arounds for systems that remain offline.

The disruption extends well beyond JLR’s own production lines, with its network of parts suppliers also forced to restrict their operations. Some have complained of a lack of transparency from the company.

On Wednesday a hacker group which was also responsible for a highly damaging attack on Marks and Spencer earlier in the year said it had infiltrated JLR’s systems.

It is understood they are now trying to extort money from the company.

JLR says it is investigating the hack, but there is no evidence at this stage any customer data has been stolen.