The Sevenoaks Town Council website has been taken down for maintenance - amid claims that it was hacked by jihadists.

This morning the council reportedly received reports of users accessing the website and being greeted with a picture of an individual dressed entirely in black holding a knife.

Kent Police could not confirm the cyber attack had been reported.

The website now greets visitors with a message that reads: "Down for maintenance."

Sevenoaks Town Council today released a statement confirming the hacking. It said: "During the weekend commencing 27th September, the Sevenoaks Town Council website was hacked, and content was replaced with information which appeared to be related a hacking organisation.

"The website was taken offline at 9am on Monday September, 29 and investigations are ongoing into the vulnerability which was exploited to replace material on the site.

"Sevenoaks Town Council has no reason to believe it was specifically targeted, earlier in 2014 a number of other large Town and Parish Council’s suffered similar hacks.

"The council apologises to members of the public who are unable to access information from the Sevenoaks Town Council website during this period of downtime."

In December last year, Sturry parish council's was targeted by activist hackers who replaced the home page with a picture of a man appearing to smoke marijuana.

A rolling message on the screen read: “MUSLIM HACKER WAS HERE ||PALESTINE WILL BE FREE||SECURITY DOWN."

To contact the Council for information that would have been available on the website call 01732 459 953 or e-mail council@sevenoakstown.gov.uk