BBC Suffolk has fallen victim to an internet hack after its official Twitter account sent out an offensive message about pop star Rihanna.

The broadcaster quickly apologised for the tweet, sent out at about 9pm, but not before it had triggered a huge online backlash.

The offensive message stated: “The weirder Rihanna’s tattoos get, the less I blame Chris Brown.”

Brown and Rihanna split after he assaulted her in 2009.

The tweet was sent out just a few minutes after the account released tweets about the Lowestoft Air Show and other news stories.

A short while later an apology was made, explaining that “something is up” with the account, and thanking those that had pointed it out.

A second message, posted a little later in the evening, said: “The recent offensive tweet has been deleted. It was unsanctioned by BBC Suffolk and in no way condoned. Sincere apologies.”

Then at just after 10.30pm, a third message from the BBC Suffolk account said: “It is clear now that the earlier offensive tweet was a hack. We will learn from this.”

But dozens of people had already made reference to the message, which some described as “misogynistic” and an “astoundingly bad-taste” joke.

It later emerged the same tweet had appeared, word for word, on a number of other Twitter accounts over recent weeks.

A BBC spokeswoman said: “This was a hack doing the rounds on quite a few Twitter accounts. It was unauthorised and we apologise. We have no idea of its origin but it has since been removed.”