AN NHS walk-in centre in the town centre has had its website hijacked by an online American outlet selling designer bags, shoes and clothes.

The website of Broad Street Mall’s drop-in centre was last Wednesday redirecting to a store called Sale Outlet Online which was trading popular brands such as Dior and Prada under a US dollar currency.

But according to West Berkshire clinical commissioning group’s head of communications Steven Buckley, the site has often been targeted in the past due to its high volume of website traffic.

He said: “The redirects do happen as a result of a small vulnerability in the website’s content management system, which has now been patched.

“At no time was the information on the Reading walk-in centre compromised and no patient or confidential information could have been accessed.”

The site, which provides information to patients, was running properly by midnight the same day.