Earlier tonight, at around 9.30pm, the BBC Suffolk Twitter account posted this, completely out of the blue: "The weirder Rihanna's tattoos get the less I blame Chris Brown."
The comment was a clear reference to R&B star Brown's 2009 arrest for physical violence against then girlfriend Rihanna, and invoked a furious and bemused reaction on the social networking site.
The comments was very much not in keeping with BBC Suffolk's more usual tweets about matters such as the Lowestoft airshow cancellation and local burst water mains.
Something seemed afoot and, as it happened, most certainly was.
The BBC has now clarified that the offending tweet was the result of a cyber-attack on its account.
"It is clear now that the earlier offensive tweet was a hack. We will learn from this," it said.
Followers grew more irate at the Beeb's seemingly puny excuse seconds after the tweet. It said: "Apologies, it appears something is up with our feed. Thanks to those who pointed it out to us," later adding: "The recent offensive tweet has been deleted. It was unsanctioned by BBC Suffolk and in no way condoned. Sincere apologies."
Private Eye writer Tom Jamison joked: "Mental picture is a frantic Alan Partridge hurling his mobile out the window as he drives away at speed from his first day at BBC Suffolk."
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