The message sent by the BBC account implied it supported the violent actions of the singer’s former boyfriend Chris Brown, who viciously assaulted her at a party.

The post shared with 5000 followers read, “The weirder Rihanna's tattoos get, the less I blame Chris Brown.”

Despite the message promptly deleted, it provoked furious reaction after it was re-tweeted several times throughout the social networking website.

The public broadcaster promptly issued an apology for the offensive tweet.

BBC spokesperson said, “This was a hack doing the rounds on quite a few Twitter accounts. It was unauthorized and we apologize.”

“We have no idea of its origin but it has since been removed,” the spokesperson concluded.