FIFE Council has apologised for a post on its Facebook page that appeared to defend Jimmy Carr and a 'joke' he made about the Holocaust.

It was viewed on the local authority's official account, which is followed by more than 53,000 people, on Saturday and the sweary message advised those who might be offended by the controversial comedian "don’t watch him in the first place".

The council said the post appeared "in error" and was an "honest mistake".

There's been a huge backlash against Carr after a Holocaust 'joke' on his Netflix show, His Dark Materials, aired on Christmas Day.

Viewers blasted his comments and a petition slamming him for "celebrating genocide" has been signed by more than 13,000 people.

The post on the council's Facebook page appeared in response to a Sky News article about his offensive comments and said: "No judgement here – but it p***** me off when a******* watch his stuff – knowing full well what it is – and then decide to complain about it.

“You know what – if you think you might be offended – don’t watch him in the first place – it’s really as easy as that.”

A later post on the page said: "We’d like to apologise for an earlier post which has now been removed, which was posted in error, and was intended for a user's personal account rather than Fife Council.”

Both posts were later deleted.

In a statement to the Times, the head of Fife Council's customer and online services, Diarmuid Cotter, apologised for the Facebook post which appeared "in error on Saturday".

He explained: "The post was intended for a personal account and was posted onto the Fife Council page by mistake.

"It was deleted very quickly and we apologised as soon as we realised what had happened.

"This was an honest mistake compounded by the fact that Facebook has changed the way users switch between personal and business accounts.

"We apologise again for any offence that may have been caused."

On his Netflix show, Carr talked of the horrors of the Holocaust and "six million Jewish lives being lost", but then made light of the deaths of thousands of Gypsies at the hands of the Nazis.

The Traveller Movement started a petition, which has now been signed by more than 13,000 people, and said: "In Netflix comedy special 'His Dark Material', Jimmy Carr 'jokes' that the Romani and Sinti genocide is ignored when people discuss the Holocaust because people don't want to 'focus on the positives'.

"This is nothing short of a celebration of genocide."

It added: "Signing this petition helps us send Netflix strong and clear message – the Holocaust is not a laughing matter and Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities are not legitimate targets.

"Jokes like this are incredibly dehumanising, please help us counteract their effect by showing support and solidarity to the affected communities."

Culture secretary Nadine Dorries described his comments as "shocking" and said there could be a new law that would "impose sanctions" on streaming organisations such as Netflix.