'˜Barracks will NOT house 900 Syrian refugees'

The story, which looked like a Mail Online article but was actually fake, claimed soldiers at Weeton Barracks were going to be turfed out of the base so it could house refugees fleeing Syria.

A spokesman for The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment Association said on Facebook: “You may have seen an article circulating on social media [saying] that Syrian refugees are going to be housed in Weeton.

“Firstly this is utter rubbish. Please stop circulating this post and stop sending us questions about this.

“In the article ‘Mr Mohammed Mohammed’ says he swam from Afghan to France with a pot noodle and his iPhone 6.

“The original link was cloned and edited to make it believable but please, read these things thoroughly. It’s absolutely ridiculous.”

The fake article claimed around 900 refugees would be re-homed at Weeton Barracks – home to The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment – with the first arriving this spring.

It claimed soldiers usually based there would be moved to Otterburn Training Camp in Northumberland, where they would live in tents for at least two years.

Mohammed Mohammed was quoted as saying: “Me happy to live in Weeton, me hope it no dirty, me want soldier to make sure clean”.

Despite that, and a number of other obvious giveaways the article had been fabricated, a number of Facebook users were duped and angrily shared the article with their virtual friends.

One said: “Veterans are up in arms regarding this story. It’s bad enough that there are enough homeless veterans on the street.”