UK police arrested a man in connection with a suspected cyberattack on the websites of the country’s Home Secretary Theresa May and her agency.

The 41-year-old man was arrested at his home in Stoke-on-Trent, central England, in a joint operation by Scotland Yard and local officers.

Scotland Yard said he was arrested on suspicion of encouraging a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack as well as breaking the Serious Crime Act of 2007 and was bailed later until mid-December this year.

A number of items were seized from his home, including computers, telephones and media storage devices, Scotland Yard said.

A Met police detective inspector Jason Tunn said: "Assisting and encouraging cyber crime is a serious matter and I would advise all persons to consider their actions and any possible future consequences prior to posting any material online."

DDoS attacks intend to force websites offline by overloading them with requests for data from hundreds or thousands of computers.