BEIJING, January 12 (Xinhuanet) -- Baidu, China's search engine, became unavailable on Tuesday after apparently being attacked by Iranian hackers.

    Internet users attempting to open the site were greeted with a graphic stating that the site had been attacked by the Iranian Cyber Army. According to a report on the People's Daily website, hackers changed Baidu's DNS records, redirecting traffic to another site.

    One Baidu insider told Chinanews.com.cn at 09:40 [01:40 GMT] that the problem has been solved, and that "it will be OK in half an hour." The site was still inaccessible until shortly before midday, though some users around the world reported problems several hours later.

    The news travelled swiftly around Twitter which itself had been the target of a similar attack in December last year. Little is know about the Iranian Cyber Army which is believed to be aligned with the current ruling party in Iran.

    (Agencies)