911 service across Connecticut was restored around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, the state Department of Emergency Management and Public Protection said.

Police departments and dispatch centers began reporting issues around noon, according to Clayton Northgraves, director of Statewide Emergency Communications.

“We contacted every CT 911 center and we confirmed that they are back in operation,” Northgraves said.

Bridgeport's director of Emergency Management and Homeland Security Scott Appleby says hundreds of people sending test texts to the 911 system caused delays for his office.

"It's almost like we were going back to the Y2K days where folks thought computers were going to shut down and everybody wanted to test their phones," Appleby says. "But at no time should you be testing it because all that's going to do is inundate the centers."

The state says there is no evidence of an attack on the system, and that the outage was caused by an outside carrier’s equipment failure, he said.