Anonymous hackers appear to have brought down Interpol's website immediately following 25 arrest of the hacking organisation's affiliates members.

The Interpol website was down on Tuesday, 29 February 2012, the same day as 25 loosely-aligned members of Anonymous were arrested in Spain, Argentina, Chile and Colombia.

The international policing organisation's website was quickly restored, but was slow to load.

The 25 Anonymous arrests took in suspects aged between 17 to 40, 250 pieces of electronic equipment and shut down servers in eastern Europe.

Suspects arrested include "Thunder" and "Pacotron" and two 17-year-old Chilean minors.

Operation Unmask, the Interpol operation which led to the subsequent Interpol hack, was launched in mid-February 2-12, after a series of coordinated attacks against the Colombian Ministry of Defence and presidential websites, Chile’s Endesa electricity company and National Library, among others.

Interpol detected that the attacks originated from Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Spain.

Bernd Rossbach, acting Interpol executive director of police services said in an official statement: "This operation shows that crime in the virtual world does have real consequences for those involved, and that the Internet cannot be seen as a safe haven for criminal activity, no matter where it originates or where it is targeted."