A number of BBC Twitter accounts were hacked by a group calling itself the Syrian Electronic Army. The group posted fake tweets regarding the conflict in Syria.

The BBC said that it now has control of all three accounts and all inappropriate content has been deleted, including fake weather conditions in the Middle East that appeared earlier in the day.

A BBC spokeswoman said: "We apologise to our audiences that this unacceptable material appeared under the BBC’s name."

The Syrian Electronic Army is a pro-Assad group which has already hacked the Facebook page of US President Barack Obama.

Apart from Obama’s Facebook page, the group has hacked the website and Twitter account of watchdog organisation Human Rights Watch and the French news organistaion, France 24.

Last year, BBC’s Persian service fell victim to a cyber attack allegedly by Iranian hackers. There was a simultaneous attempt to jam two different satellite feeds of BBC Persian into Iran.