A group campaigning for Britain to leave the European Union has urged voters to back a British exit from the EU, or "Brexit", to prevent what it called "an Orlando-style atrocity", a message condemned by rival campaigners.
Posted on the @LeaveEUOfficial Twitter account run by Leave.EU, a day after 50 people were killed in the Florida shootings, the poster-style advertisement said: "Islamist extremism is a real threat to our way of life. Act now before we see an Orlando-style atrocity here before too long."
It accompanied a Tweet saying: "The free movement of Kalashnikovs in Europe helps terrorists. Vote for greater security on June 23. Vote #Leave."
The @LeaveEUOfficial Twitter account is linked to the Leave.EU's website.
The poster disappeared from the Twitter feed about an hour after it appeared.
Several calls and emails to representatives of Leave.EU, founded by insurance tycoon and supporter of the anti-EU UK Independence Party Arron Banks, went unanswered.
The Orlando gunman, Omar Mateen, a New York-born Florida resident and US citizen who was the son of Afghan immigrants, was shot and killed by police who stormed the club early Sunday morning after a three-hour siege.
The official Vote Leave campaign, which has distanced itself from Leave.EU, disassociated itself from the poster.
Former London mayor, Boris Johnson, one of the leaders of Vote Leave, told reporters his campaign had nothing to do with the Leave.EU message and it was "very, very important" not to make political capital out of the shooting.
Both sides have stepped up campaigning before a June 23 referendum on Britain's EU membership, keen to break a deadlock in opinion polls, which suggest that voters are all but evenly split.
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