Hackers gained access to the main account for the London Metropolitan Police on Friday night and began making odd demands, taunting police and even requesting the release of a British rapper.
The account, @metpoliceuk, was hacked just before midnight Greenwich Mean Time, when it began sending out largely nonsensical tweets. Among them were, “What you gonna do call the police?,” “We are the police …” and “no comment get my lawyer.”
The hackers then began advocating for the release of British rapper Digga D from prison. It’s not clear the artist is actually in prison currently, but he has been in and out of jail in recent years.
Digga D, who is one of the leading faces of the “drill” genre, released the song “No Diet” to great success in April. The video for the song has over 10.7 million views on YouTube.
He has caused controversy in the U.K. after his group, 1011, was issued a criminal behavior order (CBO) last year, requiring them to run all of their music past Metropolitan Police before release, according to The Guardian. The order has caused arguments over government censorship, with police arguing drill music incites gang violence in London.
The hacked account also proclaimed, without context, “XEON IS THE BEST FIGHTER IN SCOTLAND.”
A Scotland Yard superintendent would only say the account, which has more than 1.22 million followers, was “subject to unauthorised access.”
Emails linking to bogus press releases calling for Digga D’s release were also sent from Scotland Yard’s press bureau.
The tweets were deleted without comment on Twitter from the Metropolitan Police. By Saturday morning, the most recent tweet was back to one about destroying guns sent just after noon on Friday.
ABC News’ Mike Trew contributed to this report.
