Fox News Twitter account announces Obama's death after being hacked

The Fox News Politics Twitter account was hacked earlier today with the hackers then tweeting that President Barack Obama had died.

A series of tweets followed the hacking, stating that the US President had been assassinated. One tweet read: “BREAKING NEWS: @BarackObama assassinated, 2 gunshot wounds have proved too much.” The tweets stayed up on the page for a number of hours. It is yet unclear who hacked the account or why Fox News was targeted.

Fox News regularly attracts criticism for its conservative led out put, although it remains the number one news channel in America, beating rivals MSNBC and CNN. Fox News website has said that the breach of security is being investigated and “regrets any distress the false tweets may have created”.