Internet users searching for the BBC's weather website found themselves confronted with sickening images of hardcore pornography, the Oxford Mail can exclusively reveal.

Instead of the latest forecast for the week's weather, those surfing the Net were given access to several pornographic sites such as Animal Farm, Celebrity Showcase and the disturbing Teenage Trouble.

It is believed a rogue e-mail attached to the BBC weather address diverted web users to the American sex site. Then, without warning, explicit images filled their screens.

However, things today seemed back to normal on the BBC online weather centre at http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather. Beleaguered weatherman Bill Giles, currently at the centre of a row in which he is accused of bullying his BBC TV colleagues, said he was "surprised" at the appearance of porn links to the weather website and added: "I have never heard of this happening before - and it is a big site.

"Oh dear, this has amazed me."

On the website on Friday, there were also offers for pornographic videos and hardcore phone lines.

The only bar to the site was a question asking whether users were over 18.

The easy access will increase the fears of parents who are concerned about the type of material available over the Internet.

Mary Clarkson, city councillor and mother of two young children, expressed outrage when she was told about the site by the Oxford Mail.

The chair of the city council's women's sub-committee said: "I am very concerned, especially if children can get access to it. "It sounds like a fairly tasteless wheeze, but one that could easily offend a lot of women, particularly if they come across it unwittingly.

"It isn't very pleasant to be confronted by images of naked women."

A Thames Valley Police spokesman said: "There are difficulties in policing the Internet and we are trying to address them on both a national and international level.

"We try to prosecute offenders who are found with indecent images of children on their computers and have had some success in this field. "However, it can be difficult to find people who have created obscene websites.

"Whoever doctored the BBC's website might not be from the Thames Valley."

A computer hacker claims to have broken into an Internet database which contains the personal details of more than 150,000 users.

The revelation has increased fears of security on the Internet.

Cable and Wireless Communications promised an immediate inquiry and said it appeared to be a "very serious breach of security". The hacker, who used the stolen information to break into other websites, said he had done it to expose poor security at Cable and Wireless Communications, a subsidiary of the telecoms group.

Story date: Monday 25 October

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.