AN INTERNATIONAL campaign for the release of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has taken an unusual twist after an unknown hacker targeted Okehampton Town Council's website.

The website was hacked on Christmas Eve, and council information was replaced by the simple caption 'Down by xTerror' and an email address believed to belong to the hacker. Due to the Christmas and New Year holiday, the website could not be fixed until after staff returned on January 4.

The website also displayed a picture taken at a demonstration in Melbourne in December which was initially published on photo sharing website Flickr. The image shows campaigners holding placards reading 'Free Julian Assange' and 'Free Bradley Manning', the US soldier suspected of being the source of the leaks.

Mr Assange, whose website Wikileaks was responsible for the release of thousands of secret US diplomatic cables, is wanted in Sweden on charges of sexual misconduct, which he denies. He is currently on bail in the UK awaiting a full extradition hearing.

The identity of the individual or group behind the attack — and indeed the reason for targeting Okehampton Town Council — is unknown. No other local councils in the area appear to have been targeted.

Spencer Stallion, a web designer from Sticklepath, said: 'It looks as though it was probably an automated attack targeting government websites, websites with .gov.uk in their address, and Okehampton was unlucky enough to have been caught out. If the hackers can hack into MasterCard and PayPal then they can probably hack into any site.'

Major payment websites with heavy security were hacked after they refused to permit transactions from people donating funds to Wikileaks following the release of the cables.

Town councillor and IT consultant Kevin Ball said: 'Whatever these people are trying to achieve, they have simply picked the wrong website.

'There is nothing we can do as a town council to aid their cause, and all they're doing is causing frustration and creating work for people who have absolutely nothing to do with this case.'

Last year, xTerror targeted the website of the Phillipines National Disaster Coordinating Council. The attack was widely criticised, as it prevented the website providing information on an imminent tropical storm.