Microsoft boss Satya Nadella says he has not seen anything like the PHP emergency "in a long, long time".

Referencing the ongoing global efforts to fix the critical cyber-security flaw in millions of websites, he told a conference "it was a long day and a long night, I know, for all the IT and security folks".

Other IT and cyber experts have told the BBC about their struggles in the last 48 hours, whose stories give us an insight into what it is like at the coalface of a major cyber emergency. But also highlight how misinformation and panic has made things a lot worse.

He said he had never had so many messages from people who were worried about their websites.

"The biggest challenge has been juggling clients who want their sites taken offline as a precaution, while trying to coordinate updates and fixes across countless different setups," he said.

"Sometimes it takes me longer to take a website down than to fix the PHP problem."

PHP is a very popular programming language which powers millions of websites.

But two critical flaws were found with the system that led to the emergency response, with national cyber-security authorities urging IT teams to download a security fix urgently or take websites and servers offline.

Mudd says since then he has been under enormous pressure and has lost a huge amount of sleep - working early and not finishing until 22:30 BST to secure his customers' systems.

In Mauritius, IT administrator Loganaden Velvindron said he too was flat out since his team realised just how much software relies on PHP.

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