US-based casual dining restaurant and sports bar franchise Buffalo Wild Wings has confirmed that its official Twitter account was hacked.

The company’s announcement comes after several offensive tweets were posted on its verified account on Friday (1 June). Around 700,000 people currently follow the restaurant on the social media platform.

The posts, which reportedly ranged from “crude” to “racist comments”, were deleted after they went unchecked for about 20 minutes, according to the company. Some of the comments also targeted author and filmmaker Tariq Nasheed and a few others.

Following the incident and verification of hacking, the restaurant chain tweeted an apology that read: “Well, we were hacked. And it wasn’t funny. We apologise for the awful posts, which obviously did not come from us.”

In a statement, the company was quoted by USA TODAY as saying: “We are in touch with our Twitter representatives and will pursue the appropriate action against the individuals involved.”

Established in 1982, Buffalo Wild Wings currently operates more than 1,200 restaurants in ten countries and is a part of the Inspire Brands family of restaurants. It serves chicken wings with a variety of sauces.

A similar incident hit McDonald’s official Twitter account in March last year.