An employee of HMV has hijacked the struggling retailer's Twitter account following the "mass firing" of 60 employees this afternoon (January 31).

As seen in the screengrabs below, the disgruntled former employee who posted the messages criticised the company for getting rid of people who wanted to help secure the long term future of the company, which entered administration earlier this year. "There are over 60 of us being fired at once! Mass execution of loyal employees who love the brand," reads one message. Another states: "Under normal circumstances we'd never dare do such a thing as this."

Those in the meeting who had not been fired soon caught on to what was happening online with one tweet, which survived just a matter of seconds, reading: "Just overheard our Marketing Director (he's staying, folks) ask 'How do I shut down Twitter?'"

It is not known who sent the messages but all seven messages have now been deleted from the HMV account. The account has over 66,000 followers and its most recent post is now a message about their Blue Cross sale, which offers 25% off the marked price on thousands of products. 

It was recently reported that a consortium of major music labels and film studios are reportedly assembling a rescue package to save HMV from going out of business.