Hapless jihadi hackers have targeted a part-time football team's official Twitter account in a failed attempt to promote Islamic State.
Staff at Heybridge Swifts in Essex, which has gates of around 100 fans for home games, have concluded extremist cyber-attackers had mistaken it for a Premier League team.
The club, which is currently 18th in Ryman League Division One North - the eighth tier of English football - was stunned when the black flag of ISIS appeared on their official Twitter account last night.
But the propaganda stunt flopped as the post received just six retweets due to the semi-professional club's lower league status.
Essex Police are involved after club officials admitted they now cannot access to the rogue Twitter account, meaning the ISIS image is still there. But there is no criminal investigation yet.
Dave Buckingham, media manager at Essex-based Heybridge Swifts, said: 'We are absolutely bemused as to why anyone would target the club.
'The whole situation is so surreal. I have even had a phone call from Essex Police officers asking me what we are playing at.
'We've released an official statement making it clear we have not posted the flag of Islamic State willingly.
The bizarre stunt comes just weeks after hackers took control of non-league side Chatham Town's website to spread Islamic State propaganda.
The club's Twitter feed has more than 3,500 followers and was created back in January 2010.
A statement on the football club's website today said: 'This also affected the personal account of our club photographer and a number of other Twitter users all at the same time.
'At this current time we remain locked out of our account and have not posted the flag of the Islamic State.
'We will continue to try and restore our account, in the meantime we apologise. We have no control at this current time of any part of the account.'
Last month fellow Ryman One North side Chatham Town's website was hacked by extremists.
A bungling jihadi hacker targeted the small part-time football club's website to declare that 'I am not Charlie' after mistaking it for a Premier League team.
The cyber attack came ahead of the club's clash with Tilbury FC - which attracted a crowd of just 63.
The website was shut down for 12 hours after an image of a machine-gun wielding man wearing a gas mask was posted with a message asking: 'Where is the security?'
Supporters of the tiny Kent club in Ryman League Division One were left baffled by the message which also said: 'I'm not a terrorist. I am a Muslim and proud to be'.
In January a hapless team of Muslim cyber terrorists whose aim is to hack websites belonging to the world's biggest governments and businesses mistakenly hijacked Bristol's online bus timetable.
(dailymail.co.uk)
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