Support surges for petition to revoke Brexit

LONDON, Mar 21 (Agencies): An online petition asking the British government to revoke Brexit briefly crashed on Thursday after a surge in support saw it garner more than 600,000 signatures in less than 24 hours.

With just eight days to go until Britain is scheduled to leave the European Union, the petition launched on Wednesday admitted that a second referendum "may not happen - so vote now".

"The government repeatedly claims exiting the EU is 'the will of the people'. We need to put a stop to this claim by proving the strength of public support now, for remaining in the EU," the petition read.

A House of Commons spokesman said the technical difficulties on the website for the petition were caused by "a large and sustained load on the system".

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Theresa May was trying to persuade European Union leaders on Thursday to delay Brexit by up to three months, with her plans to leave the bloc in chaos just eight days before Britain's scheduled departure.

May will meet the 27 national other EU leaders in Brussels, a day after she wrote requesting an extension to the Brexit deadline until June 30.