STOMACH-churning images have been used to attack a Keighley Facebook page used by thousands of people.

Photos of dead children, aborted foetuses and mangled and abused animals were posted on the page ‘Buy swap sell: Keighley, Skipton, Bradford and near’.

And when disgusted users of the page – which has more than 16,000 members – challenged the sick online trolls, their own Facebook profile images were hijacked, posted on the same page and labelled with viciously offensive captions.

Police confirmed this week they are investigating complaints about the site.

Lee-anne Spriggs, 29, of Woodland Heights in Keighley, said: “Some of what has been put on that site has been just unbelievable.

“It goes beyond disgusting.

“A close friend of mine has been targeted. It’s traumatising and no-one should be subjected to this.”

A 45-year-old Silsden woman, who asked not to be named, said: “Several people with fake profiles have been terrorising people.

“They’ve put up pictures of people’s babies with the caption ‘Punch bag £5’ or pictures of a young girl with Down’s Syndrome with the caption ‘£30 for the retard’.

“They’re making fake profiles and using innocent people’s pictures for them. I’m totally and utterly disgusted.”

Thornton resident Laura Atkinson, 30, said when she challenged the trolls they raided her Facebook page and posted photos of her young children.

“My page is set to ‘friends only’ for my photos but that didn’t make any difference,” she said.

“Facebook have been no help at all. They just said these pictures don’t violate their community standards.”

Since the page was attacked, normal site users have been hitting back, deliberately “bumping” non-offensive posts further up the page to displace the malicious material.

One Keighley man leading the fightback, who also did not want to be named, said the site’s original administrator had left the page.

“I understand Facebook has only got so many staff, who are busy and who receive millions of false reports,” he said. “But they should make it easier for people to make their own Facebook profiles more secure.”

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said: “Officers have received reports about this matter and are investigating to identify those responsible and to establish if any offences have occurred.”

When approached by the Keighley News, Facebook said it was looking into the problem.

Ken Eastwood, of broadband campaign group FibreValley and Oxenhope-based consultancy Digital Nomads Limited, said: “This sounds absolutely terrible and given some of the allegations made, may well be illegal.

“UK legislation makes it an offence to send messages that are grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character. Some of what has been described would appear to fall into that definition.

“The difficulty is often in identifying the perpetrators who use fictitious identities and often take elaborate steps to avoid being traced.”

He urged users of the page not to engage with the trolls, block them if necessary and to continue reporting their behaviour to Facebook.