Police have blamed hackers for sending a link to an indecent image from an official force Twitter account.

The Essex Police account sent a tweet apparently advising members of the public about how to stay secure while browsing the internet using the hashtag #CyberAware on Friday morning.

In fact the force had itself fallen foul of cyber criminals as a link contained in the message directed users to an indecent image and dozens of users pointed out the mistake.

A force spokesman said staff had acted quickly to remove the malicious tweet. The account then sent a new message, warning people not to click on the link.

The spokesman added: "The tweet included a link which took users to an offensive picture.

"Our initial assessment of the site hosting the picture is that it is not running any malware but any users who visited the site are advised to run their security software to ensure their computers have not been infected.

"An investigation is now being carried out to establish how our account security was breached and steps have already been taken to prevent a recurrence."