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An online petition calling for a second EU referendum has stormed past two million signatures – amid claims it is being rigged by Remain voters.

The petition on the Government’s website has amassed more than 2.3 million backers since the Brexit vote was confirmed on Friday.

But the huge show of support for a fresh vote has prompted accusations that the petition has been “fraudulently” manipulated.

Leave voters have been sharing a tweet which allegedly stated: “If you’re not British, sign this petition anyway pls and DM for postcode. We’re desperate #VoteRemain.”

It was apparently posted from an account which has since been deleted.

Robert J F Barnes was among those to share a screenshot of the tweet, writing: “The petition with 2m votes is fraudulent.”

Another tweeter sent the screenshot to the Met Police, writing: “Hey @metpoliceuk is inciting foreigners to interfere in UK Government some kind of treason?”

There were also claims that the petition had been targeted by hackers who were furiously voting.

A screenshot of a message which was allegedly written by a hacker has also been sent to the Met Police after being shared on Twitter.

It stated: "I have hacked the UK petition website and am currently voting like crazy on this petition."

Meanwhile, a German journalist claims to have signed the petition to prove it can be manipulated.

Lorenz Hemicker ‏tweeted: “Are you British? Sure! Voting for a 2nd #Brexit-Referendum takes only 30 seconds. Even for a German journalist.”

People are asked to confirm they are a British citizen or UK resident and provide a postcode and email address to sign petitions on the Parliament.uk website.

They then have to click a link which is sent to the given email address to confirm their signature.

The petition went viral after the EU referendum ended with a narrow win for the Leave campaign.

It was created about a month before Thursday's poll, which saw 17.4 million votes cast to leave the EU, compared with 16.1 million for remaining, with a turnout of 72.2 per cent.

It states: “We the undersigned call upon HM Government to implement a rule that if the remain or leave vote is less than 60% based a turnout less than 75% there should be another referendum.”

It became so popular on Friday – as Remain voters sought to register their anger at the Brexit vote –that it repeatedly crashed the website.

Steps have since been taken to ensure the web servers can cope with the demand.

The petition may now be discussed in the Commons after gaining more than 23 times the threshold of 100,000 backers required to be considered for a debate.

But the country’s foremost elections expert today insisted there was “no chance” of a second referendum taking place.

Professor John Curtice, who produced the only general election exit poll to correctly predict a Conservative victory, was speaking after the petition reached a million signatures.

He said: “How many people voted in favour of Leave? Seventeen million. One million is chicken feed by comparison.

“It's no good people signing the petition now, they should have done it before. Even then, these petitions don't always mean a great deal.

“It has passed the 100,000 mark for it to be debated in Parliament. All that means is that some MPs will say, 'It's a terrible shame', others will say, 'Hallelujah'. Then that's the end of it.”

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said manipulation of the petition would not be a matter for police and that no formal allegations have been received.