Police have warned Christmas party goers to obtain consent before kissing under the mistletoe otherwise they may be guilty of rape.

The advice came in a tweet, since deleted, by the Police Service of Northern Ireland which has been criticised for “trivialising” sexual violence.

The force, which has 159,000 followers, tweeted on Saturday: “If you bump into that special someone under the mistletoe tonight, remember that without consent it is rape #SeasonsGreetings”.

The message was then shared hundreds of times, attracting a backlash that was both angry and bemused.

Some respondents suggested PSNI had failed to understand the law regarding rape, while others said it showed the organisation had a “warped view of the world”.

The tweet was subsequently deleted, with the force later saying it had been “taken out of context”.

The message was intended to form part of PSNI’s “without consent” campaign, launched in 2013, which has previously run into criticism for allegedly “victim blaming” over a tweet in March warning women about the dangers of “overindulging”.

One Twitter user, @69mib, wrote: “Bumping into someone, under the mistletoe, is now considered rape? Why do you trivialise such a serious issue with such a nonsense tweet?”.

Another, Mike Love, responded: “This tweet tells people that a kiss is rape. Do you realise what you’ve said?”