The BBC weather Twitter feed, which has 60,000 followers, was among those affected.

Alongside the standard tweets from the weather feed such as "’last night was chilly" some more bizarre comments began emerging. 

They included: "Saudi weather station down due to head-on collision with camel."

Another read: "Chaotic weather forecast for Lebanon as the government decides to distance itself from the Milky Way."

The group claiming responsibility has previously spread messages in support of Syrian President Bashar-al-Assad.

The BBC’s Arabic and Radio Ulster feeds were also affected.