The Indian army claims to have found evidence of the existence of the yeti, in a tweet which has been greeted with online mockery.

“For the first time, an Indian Army Mountaineering Expedition Team has [sighted] Mysterious Footprints of mythical beast ‘Yeti’ measuring 32x15 inches close to Makalu Base Camp on 09 April 2019,” a spokesperson said through the army’s official Twitter account.

“This elusive snowman has only been sighted at Makalu-Barun National Park in the past.”

Despite the statement’s serious tone and photographs of the footprints, the claim has been greeted with widespread derision.

A spokesperson has since told The Independent that the tweet was not a joke.

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“The team has handed over whatever evidence they have to the scientific community and maybe after some time we will get some results,” the army spokesperson said.

“Whatever we have put [on Twitter] is just to present the findings of the team.

“We are not saying that [the yeti] is there. It is only an assumption based on what the team has found.”

The yeti is a mythological creature from Himalayan folklore, also known as the Abominable Snowman.

The myth is well known in the west, where it spread from the accounts of 19th century explorers.

An Indian government source told The Independent that the claim was not as ridiculous as it sounded, pointing to the fact that National Geographic had run several features on the yeti in the past.

When asked if the yeti post was likely to inspire interest in the Indian army and in the Himalayas, the army spokesperson pointed out that the Yeti claim was already trending on Twitter.

“In fact if you see this tweet is right now trending number 1 in India,” he said.

“But I don’t think it is fair to call it a publicity stunt.

“This is an objective thing. We don’t sponsor a particular point of view or finding.”

The tweet’s popularity was partly driven by online commenters wondering whether the post was a joke.

“Is this some prank?” Smita Barooah, a Twitter user, asked.

“Maybe something out of the box to draw attention to their expedition?”

Others were less light-hearted.

“This is deeply, deeply embarrassing,” Praveen Swami, group consulting editor at Indian media company Network18, wrote.

“Whoever in the Indian army’s PR has circulated this is disgracing the institution, and India, in the world’s eyes.”

A politician from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was also mocked for asking the army to stop calling the yeti a “beast”.

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Tarun Vijay asked the army to use more respectful language.

“Congratulations, we are always proud of you,” he wrote, in response to the organisation’s Twitter post.