Extremists 'target station for playing Cliff'

Extremists have reportedly hacked into a radio station website because it played a song by Sir Cliff Richard.

Radio Basingstoke's normal homepage was replaced by a series of haunting images and a warning not to insult Islam.

Owner and DJ Astrid Haigh-Smith told the Daily Mail that she believes the online station had been targeted because Richard is on their playlist.

"I couldn’t understand why we had been targeted. I just thought maybe it was because we had commented that we hoped our troops would be safe over Christmas," she said.

"We’ve also played the Cliff Richard version of 'Hallelujah' but we would never dream of running down any religions."

Police collected printouts of the defaced webpages and have confirmed that they are investigating the situation.