A CRUEL hoax that saw teenage sisters wrongly identified as potential victims of the Manchester suicide bomber has been condemned by their appalled family.

Images of 13-year-old Niamh Bishop and her sister Anna Heward, 18, were published by national newspapers and seen by millions of people after an internet troll spread fake news in the aftermath of Monday’s tragedy.

Echo Comment: Sorting facts from fakery

The family of the Darlington siblings were inundated with hundreds of concerned messages and spoke to The Northern Echo to tell the world that the teenagers – who were in bed at home at the time of the bombing – are safe.

On Tuesday morning, Anna Heward’s worried friends began contacting her, saying they had seen a Twitter post suggesting her little sister was missing.

Along with thousands of others, they saw posts from the now deleted @_maddisonallen Twitter account which appeared to document the frantic attempts of a teenager to find her “best friend” Lucy after the attack which killed 22 people and injured 50 more.

In fact, the account holder was a cruel Twitter troll using pictures taken from Ms Heward’s Instagram page to pose as a teenager while claiming photographs of her sister Niamh were of the fictitious missing girl Lucy.

The first post, retweeted more than 16,000 times, said: “My best friend Lucy is missing in Manchester after the Ariana Grande concert. We can’t get in touch with her and no one knows where she is.”

Other posts followed, with the troll begging her “best friend” to come home, even saying that the missing teenager was deaf and had communication issues.

The disturbing Twitter posts were among many posted by sick trolls in what appears to be a deliberate attempt to mislead the public and cause distress by circulating images of people unconnected to the atrocity.

In a move that has been strongly criticised by Ms Heward and her mother, Pauline Gorman, national publications quickly picked up the fake news.

A picture of Niamh was published alongside other missing youngsters on the front page of the Daily Star on Wednesday while the Express website also featured her picture – and one of her older sister – in a story about those still missing following the bombing.

Police are now investigating the disturbing chain of events while Ms Gorman has submitted a formal complaint to IPSO, the press regulatory body.

Ms Gorman said: “We posted to say these posts were inaccurate but the first post grew so quickly – once this kind of thing starts, it is very difficult to stop.

“This has undermined a huge and traumatic incident and has been needlessly distressing for us all.

“It has been awful and because of this, efforts may have been diverted from someone who actually was missing.

“The degree of irresponsibility shown by some newspapers has been shocking – all they needed to do was check their sources properly.

“The Daily Star knows there are fake stories going around and they did not take their responsibilities seriously.

“Children have died and I cannot tell you how horrible it has been to see Niamh’s picture next to those who died or are missing – it is beyond belief.”

Ms Heward added: “I feel awful for the families who have seen so many people trying their best to help find my sister when they have lost relatives of their own.”

The Northern Echo asked the Daily Star and The Express for comment but has not yet received a response.

We understand the Daily Star has published a correction concerning its inaccurate report.

Reporting by Allen White and Joanna Morris.