Police in the UK have been slammed for sharing a photo of their breakfast fry-up, with critics saying it could "offend vegans".

In December, North Wales Police Rural Crime Team tweeted a picture of the food at their team meeting including eggs, bacon, sausages, baked beans and white toast.

The photo garnered a number of comments from people who saw the humorous side, but some slammed the photo as "thoughtless".

"Speaking as a tax payer I'd prefer them to be less selective when answering questions and perhaps not post breakfast pics that offend vegetarians/ vegans followers - pretty thoughtless," user Diana wrote.

View photos The UK police tweeted a photo of their fry-up breakfast. Photo: Twitter/ North Wales Police Rural Crime Team More

Another simply wrote: "Meat is murder".

The North Wales Police team eventually responded to the criticism in good humour with a further picture of the fry up with a line of tomato sauce under the toast.

“At some point you have to draw a line under it," they tweeted.

On Wednesday, crime team manager Rob Taylor shared a video of himself explaining why they had not tweeted in a while, saying the attention had become "overwhelming".

View photos A few responses slammed the picture as disrespectful to vegans. Photo: Twitter More

View photos The Wales police eventually shared a second breakfast picture, saying a line should be drawn under the debate. Photo: Twitter/ North Wales Police Rural Crime Team More

"With 1.9 million interactions per month with our site, it's become overwhelming for us to reply or comment," he said.

"So when you do read [media reports] and it says that we've withdrawn because vegans are getting upset with our breakfast, I'm sorry but the story has been sensationalised.

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