The BBC was caught up in a Twitter ‘storm’ today after several of its official accounts were hijacked by supporters of the Syrian regime.
A group, calling themselves the Syrian Electronic Army, hacked the @bbcweather and started tweeting insults at opponents of the al-Assad regime.
They sent nine messages to the account’s 59,000 followers – with the BBC staff who normally manage the page helpless to stop the internet terrorists.
The Anti-Semitic troublemakers talked about Israel facing a tsunami and extreme temperatures and advised residents to “return to Poland”.
They also claimed the Saudi Arabian weather station was down because of a head-on collision with a camel and gave an earthquake warning to Qatar.
They tweeted: “Forecast for Tel Aviv on Saturday – 5000 degrees Kelvin with northern fog and eastern high pressure front
“Tsunami alert for Haifa: Residents are advised to return to Poland.
“Chaotic weather forecast for Lebanon as the government decides to distance itself from the Milky Way.
“Saudi weather station down due to head on-collision with camel.
“Earthquake warning for Qatar: Hamad Bin Khalifah about to exit vehicle.
“Hazardous fog warning for North Syria: Erdogan orders terrorists to launch chemical weapons at civilian areas.
“Scandal: Edinburgh storm warning station decommissioned after maintenance fund diverted to arming Syrian opposition.”
The corporation confirmed the @bbcweather account was official and they were looking at a way to regain control of the page.
The attack on the BBC’s weather account follows other recent corporate Twitter hackings.
Both Burger King and Jeep were recent victims.
The BBC yesterday confirmed “several” official Twitter accounts were hacked.
A spokesperson said: “We are aware that in the past few hours several BBC Twitter accounts have been hacked.
“We are actively working on this and expect it to be resolved shortly.”
The corporation regained control of the account at 3.41pm, tweeting: “Sorry about that, we were hacked. Normal service resumes.”
