Hackers spread Ground Zero attack scare

New York: Twitter acted swiftly to suspend the account of a so-called ‘hacktivist' group which was suspected of gaining control of the official NBC News twitter account and posting messages claiming that another attack was underway at New York's Ground Zero.

Coming two days before the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the prank by a group calling themselves the ‘script kiddies' was greeted with widespread opprobrium from other twitter users.

"Breaking News! Ground Zero has just been attacked. Flight 5736 has crashed into the site, suspected hijacking. More as the story develops," the hackers wrote in one of the fake tweets sent from the NBC account. They added: "Flight 4782 is not responding, suspected hijacking. One plane just hit Ground Zero site at 5:47. #groundzeroattacked. "This is not a joke, Ground Zero has just been attacked. We're attempting to get reporters on the scene #groundzeroattacked." The group claimed responsibility by tweeting on the hacked account: "NBCNEWS hacked by The Script Kiddies. Follow them at @s_kiddies!"

Experts suspect the group are British although it was not confirmed.