India ministry mocked for 'appropriating' Spain border Published duration 15 June 2017

image caption Alt News said the picture was taken by Spanish photographer Javier Moyano in 2006

Twitter users are ridiculing India's home ministry for using a picture from Morocco's border with a Spanish territory to highlight its work.

Alt News website reported on Wednesday that the ministry used the picture in its annual report to show that it had installed floodlights in border areas.

But the website said the picture was taken in 2006 by Spanish photographer Javier Moyano of the Ceuta enclave.

The ministry has reportedly ordered an inquiry into the "embarrassing gaffe".

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has faced similar online mockery in the past for using wrong or photo-shopped pictures in official press releases and reports.

India's state-run Press Information Bureau in 2015 tweeted an obviously edited image of Mr Modi surveying deadly Chennai floods.

In the latest gaffe, the home ministry included the picture in its report which was published on its website.

After Alt News reported the error, many Indians took to Twitter to mock the ministry.

image copyright Shekhar Gupta

image copyright Sumit Chaudhary

image copyright Akash Rinwan

image copyright Latha Jishnu

The NDTV website reported that Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi had demanded an explanation from officials.

"If it's a mistake by the ministry, we will apologise," he said.

The ministry has been installing floodlights in border areas to check smuggling and infiltration.

In its annual report, the ministry said it had floodlit 647km (402 miles) of India's border with Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Officials said it was unclear how a wrong picture made its way into the annual report.