Hackers took over a Twitter account belonging to US broadcaster Fox News and posted a series of tweets declaring that President Obama had been assassinated.

The Twitter feed for Fox News political news sent out a series of tweets starting around 2 am local time that President Obama had been shot. Fox has claimed that its account had been hacked but after two hours the malicious tweets had still not been removed. A group or individual calling itself The Script Kiddies appeared to claim responsibility, according to a BBC report.

The tweets began appearing on Fox's account on July 4, the US Independence Day. The first post read: "Just regained full access to our Twitter and email. Happy 4th."

The next post read: "BarackObama has just passed. The President is dead. A sad 4th of July, indeed. President Barack Obama is dead."

The updates were soon being "retweeted" across the internet and made headlines in several newspapers across the world. Obama was in Washington and not in Iowa where the hackers claimed he was shot during a campaign spot.

Fox News said the hacking was being investigated. In a statement, Jeff Misenti, vice president and general manager of Fox News Digital said: "We will be requesting a detailed investigation from Twitter about how this occurred, and measures to prevent future unauthorized access into FoxNews.com accounts."

The Script Kiddies account has been suspended. It is uncertain whether this user is related to other hacking groups LulzSec or Anonymous that have been hacking other sites in the last few weeks. LulzSec has attacked another Fox Entertainment Group website, Fox.com in May 2011.