Palestinian activists have hacked into a Canterbury village website - replacing news on community events with explicit language and drug use.

Sturry parish council’s website was targeted by hackers yesterday, who replaced the home page with a cartoon image of a man appearing to smoke marijuana.

A rolling message on the screen reads “MUSLIM HACKER WAS HERE ||PALESTINE WILL BE FREE||SECURITY DOWN” and explicit language is also included.

The incident prompted parishioners to apologise via the group’s Facebook page for any inconvenience caused as news on community events and parish meetings are unavailable.

The message read: “Please note that unfortunately our website has been hacked by Palestinian activists (no, really) and unfortunately now features some rather explicit language.

“Until we can get it back online please do avoid it unless you particularly want to take a look, and apologies for any inconvenience caused.”

Villagers reacting to the statement speculated whether the hackers targeted the parish because of unpopular planning applications.

James Goodwin-O’Keeffe posted: “Obviously they must have heard that Sturry is kind of a big deal. Either that or more people are opposed to building on the park then you first thought.”