A regional news website in Ireland moved quickly to distance itself Friday from an Islamic State-themed April Fools' Day story on its site.
KildareNow published a story about a man dubbed "Paddy Jihaddy" who annexed a part of County Kildare in Ireland, raising the ISIS flag and renaming the area, which is called the Hill of Allen, the Hill of Allah.
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“Irish security forces have placed a ring of steel around the Allen area and road diversions are in place until further notice after an anonymous phone call by a male calling himself Paddy Jihaddy said he had rigged the area with explosives and that he was renaming the the locality the Hill of Allah," the story, which has now been removed from the website, read.
The story was quickly spotted on Twitter and singled out as being in poor taste.
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Tweet may have been deleted
Tweet may have been deleted
Tweet may have been deleted
KildareNow said the story, which also appeared on the website's social media accounts, was "completely unauthorised" and not posted by a member of their editorial team.
"KildareNow would like to apologise unreservedly to everybody who was rightly offended by the article which was extremely insensitive especially in light of recent tragic events in Brussels and elsewhere," it says in a statement on its website.
The statement adds that a full "internal investigation" is now underway.
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