Greater Manchester police have apologised after a photo of two men dressed in Nazi uniforms was posted on a Twitter account belonging to the force.
The picture, uploaded to the GMP Traffic account, showed the pair wearing SS uniforms standing next to a German military Kübelwagen used in the second world war.
The caption said: “M66 J22 on the west Yorkshire border. These two likely lads trying to invade.”
The posting of the tweet on Sunday provoked a backlash from people who criticised it as offensive and insensitive.
Among them was Shulem Stern, a member of the orthodox Jewish community in Stamford Hill, north London.
He retweeted the offending post with the words “not right”, copying in GMP’s main Twitter account, as well as those of the force’s chief constable, Ian Hopkins, and its assistant chief constable.
Shortly after he contacted them, the offending post was deleted and GMP tweeted Stern, saying: “It has been removed and we will speak to those involved. It was unacceptable.”
A GMP spokesman said: “A tweet was posted on a GMP local social media account on Sunday 7 August 2016, which caused offence to a number of people.
“This post was deleted as soon as were made aware of it and we apologise for its content, as it was unacceptable. This matter has been referred to GMP’s professional standards branch.”
