News that the “Rolling in the Deep” singer had given birth on Friday prompted a storm of congratulations on the social media network – but some individuals used it as a chance to publish hurtful messages.

Vanessa Bieber (@PerfFemale) tweeted: “Aw Adele gave birth to a baby : ) is it fat and handicapped lol just murder it already lol.”

Other tweets included “I’ll go see her in the UK. And kill her baby”.

Trolls suggested that post-natal depression and a cot death would provide good song-writing material for the musician.

Reports that Adele’s child had been born were published on Saturday but they are yet to publicly confirm it.

“We are not releasing a statement at this time,” Adele’s publicist said following enquiries by Us Weekly and the Daily Mail.

The 24-year-old musician and her charity worker partner Simon Knoecki  confirmed their baby news on 29 June when they published the following statement on Adele’s website:

“I’m delighted to announce that Simon and I are expecting our first child together. I wanted you to hear the news direct from me.”

Twitter users hit out at the trolling campaign conducted against the singer. Ben cfc mad finch wrote: “Trolling Adele is a disgusting crime” called for Vanessa Bieber and another twitter use to be arrested.

Vanessa Bieber’s tweets have since been removed.

This is the latest in a worrying trend of Twitter abuse to hit high-profile figures.

X Factor judge and Take That member Gary Barlow found himself the target of trolls following the still birth of his baby daughter in August.

Twitter user MrKennethTong, believed to be former Big Brother contestant Kenneth Tong, posted a number of offensive statements on his account about the grieving musician’s late daughter Poppy.

Team GB’s Olympic bronze-winning swimmer Tom Daley involved police when a Twitter troll suggested that his late father would have been disappointed in his performance at the Games.

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