People stormed social media to criticise the BBC after the media house posted on their Twitter and Facebook pages that a missing mother looked exactly like one of their news readers, the media reported.
The BBC was later forced to apologise as the post was thought to be in "poor taste" by social media users, dailymail.co.uk reported on Thursday.
"BBC Look North" reported that lawyer Renata Antczak, 49, had not been seen since she dropped her daughter off at school two weeks ago.
The programme put a post on its Facebook and Twitter pages, comparing its journalist Gemma Dawson with the missing mother.
A photograph showed Antczak on the big screen and Dawson reporting besides. Both women were wearing a red dress and had similar blonde hairstyles.
'When your newsreader @GemsDawson looks like a missing mum?Here's a link to the story,' read the online post.
They later amended their post and wrote: "When your newsreader looks like the story."
However, their message sparked outrage with some people saying it was written in 'bad taste'.
"Poor taste. Imagine if her family saw you making jokes about it?" commented a shocked viewer, after seeing the post.
"Should the BBC be making jokes about a missing woman?" questioned another person.
BBC Look North responded to the comments and wrote: "Sorry you think that but we hoped the publicity for the search might help...if people decide to share it?"
A BBC spokesman confirmed that they have since deleted the post and added they "regretted" putting it online.
"This post has been deleted. We regret if it caused offence," the spokesman said in a statement.
"We are continuing to cover the police search for this missing woman across our output including social media," he added.
--IANS
rt/ruwa/bg
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