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The British Army has been forced to apologise after it posted and then deleted an allegedly “racist tweet”.

It showed a camouflaged soldier pulling a surprised face, accompanied by the caption: “Being a #soldier in the jungle requires a robust sense of humour.”

But many outraged social media users were quick to claim the soldier is “blacking up” and labelled the post “disgraceful”.

An army spokesman told the Standard: “The content of the tweet shows a picture of a soldier wearing camouflage and concealment measures, standard for jungle training in Belize.

“We can see how the tweet may have been misinterpreted, have immediately removed it and apologise for any offence it may have caused.”

The image, which was posted at 10.21 this morning, shows a soldier crouched on the ground with a firearm in one hand, turning back to look at the camera.

His face is entirely covered in dark green camouflage paint and he is making a shocked face, with open eyes and mouth.

Despite quickly garnering 70 likes, the post was also met with a barrage of criticism and was deleted after less than an hour.

Furious Twitter users claimed the “sense of humour” refers to the soldier’s face paint and not the face he is pulling.

One tweeter wrote: “I detest the idea of non-white people fighting for a country that sees their skin colour as something to joke about.”

Several suggested that a new social media management position will be opening up at the army soon.

Zoe Davis added: “Looks like British Army deleted their tweet. Luckily screenshots exist! This really isn’t appropriate is it!”

However, lots of Twitter users also leapt to the army’s defence, saying that that the paint was simply camouflage required for the job and the “sense of humour” referred to the soldier’s facial expressions.

One wrote: “Would you rather A. Be considered a racist or B. Be seen, then captured and possibly tortured. It’s camouflage not blacking up.”