Labour students have denied they support killing the Queen after they posted a "tongue-in-cheek" message on the anniversary of Charles I's execution.

Students at the University of Liverpool tweeted: "It's 369 years since the execution of Charles I. Happy #RegicideDay, comrades! We did it once, we can do it once again."

The tweet was accompanied by an engraving image of the execution. Charles was beheaded in Whitehall on 30 January 1649 following his defeat in the Civil War.

In an emailed statement, the Liverpool Labour student club said: "Clearly it was meant as tongue-in-cheek and we do not advocate regicide."

But the club, which uses a picture of Jeremy Corbyn as its Twitter avatar, later apologised and said: "We have deleted our last tweet. It was intended as a tongue-in-cheek comment. We obviously do not advocate regicide. We apologise for any offence caused."

According to its page on the Liverpool Guild of Students website, the club has helped campaign in byelections, and hosted speakers including Shami Chakrabarti and Owen Jones. It describes itself as "friendly and active".

In his first Labour conference speech as leader in 2015, Mr Corbyn called for a "kinder" politics, and an end to "personal abuse".

A University of Liverpool spokeswoman said: "We are aware that a number of people have raised concerns about an inappropriate post from the Labour Students Club’s Twitter account. Members of the student society have taken the decision to remove the tweet and have apologised."