Conservative Party hit by cyber attack ahead of election - two sources

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s governing Conservative Party was hit by a cyber attack on Tuesday which tried to force its website offline, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

The attack began shortly before 1600 GMT and lasted for less than an hour without managing to take down any party websites, the sources said.

A Conservative Party spokeswoman had no immediate comment and said she was unaware of the attack.

One of the sources said the attackers appeared to be different from those responsible for two back-to-back attacks on the main opposition Labour Party on Monday and earlier on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Jack Stubbs. Editing by Andrew MacAskill and Gareth Jones)