Twitter goes into meltdown after Beeb sends out breaking news alerts in BENGALI

IT was feared the BBC had been HACKED by ISIS this afternoon after its breaking news Twitter account sent out an alert in Bengali.

Millions of people across the nation were shocked to receive a link to a story about a militant being killed during a gunfight in Mirpur, Bangladesh, rather than details of breaking news in English.

People on social media mistook the language for Arabic, prompting claims that ISIS had attacked the corporation.

Becky Stock, a copywriter and proof reader, said the BBC's tweet "terrified" her.

On Twitter, she wrote to the Beeb's breaking news account and said: "Terrified as followed the link... I instantly decided BBC had been hacked by IS."

Jack Shingler, a technical recruiter in the defence sector, also wrote: "Pretty sure Isis have just hacked BBC news."

But other social media users were astonished that people had fallen for the ISIS hack rumours, particularly as the tweet was not written in Arabic - a language Islamic State extremists would be more likely to use.

One person wrote: "One notification in Bengali and the internet freaks out about the BBC News app being hacked and spurting out Arabic."

Discussion of the bizarre tweet quickly began to trend across Twitter,  prompting one women to remind Brits that ISIS would probably not use Bengali in their social media missives.

She wrote: "No babe, it's actually the news, just in another language which your ignorance leads u to conclude is Arabic."

Another Twitter user added: "Amazing how someone's hand slipping on a keyboard becomes 'BBC hacked by ISIS' in the space of half an hour."

Robert Peston, former BBC economics editor, was among the first high profile people to notice the unusual tweet.

The link contained in the BBC's strange tweet pointed to a story about a raid on a terrorist hideout in Mirpur, Bangladesh.

One militant was killed during the raid whilst three police officers were injured.

The BBC quickly stepped in to squash the hack rumours and tweeted: "Apologies to anyone who received a breaking news alert from our Bengali service. Don't worry, we weren't hacked."

Nick Sutton, editor of the BBC News Online, then tweeted: "Apologies to those who received an alert from @BBCBreaking. We haven't been hacked. The alert was sent by mistake by World Service colleague."