AN investigation has been launched after Scottish Borders Council's Twitter feed was targeted by "anti-vaccination hackers".

On Saturday night, six tweets containing "false information" were published on the site.

The posts were purportedly from European medicines agency, EudraVigilance.

The group said the messages were designed to "deepen vaccine hesitancy".

They were quickly spotted and taken down by council staff who apologised and confirmed an investigation had been launched into the circumstances.

A spokesperson for EudraVigilance said the latest incident appeared to be part of a long-running online "disinformation campaign".

They told the Peeblesshire News: "EudraVigilance is not an organisation in itself, but the central database for suspected adverse events reported by individuals and healthcare professionals in the EU.

“There is a disinformation campaign that has been running for months on social media, with visual elements similar to the one used by the hacker of the Scottish Borders Council Twitter account.

“These visuals use EMA’s (European Medicines Agency) logo and the EudraVigilance words without the agency’s consent to spread false information and deepen vaccine hesitancy.”

A Scottish Borders Council spokesperson told us: “We experienced an issue late on Saturday evening where six tweets were posted via our corporate Twitter account from outwith the organisation.

“This matter is under investigation and we apologise to our followers.”