A Facebook page entitled "the invasion of jews in midleton" (a town in County Cork) has come under criticism for its anti-Semitic content.

The creation of the page follows on from the immigration of several religious Jewish families to the small County Cork town; angry commenters have already called for the page's removal.

Over 400 Irish Facebook users "liked" the page, which sports a 'Jew Jitsu' logo and has as its description: "Join if you have escaped being captured by the jews in midleton in the last few days".

Although its not yet known who created the offensive page, the identity of the those leaving comments is clearly displayed.

"Be careful of their teeth", warns the group's creator, who is quickly congratulated by another user, Orla Furlong, who says that whoever made the racist page "is an absolute legend".

"They were originally meant to stay in Killarney...but they refused to go through Ovens" chimes in Kieran Kelleher in a double-entendre on the infamous ovens used to burn Jews during the Holocaust, which is also the name of an outlying Cork suburb.

"Careful if you ever shakin hands wit one their claws are rele sharp " says Aaron Murphy, a high school student from Presentation Brothers College in Cork. Another claims that a Jewish woman was too cheap to pay for a bus fare and tried to barter for a bicycle instead: "she said it was too dear [the bus fare] and thought she could buy our bikes off us for a fiver," the female poster claims.

Another poster, Brendan Moran, said that he wouldn't like to be living in the housing estate "with them [the Jews] there."

Several commenters hit back at the page, calling it "anti-Semitic scum", to which another poster replied that he has a "victim complex".

Facebook has come in for increasing criticism over its lack of regulation, amongst growing privacy concerns. Social media critics have expressed concern that the social networking website has become a "hive of racism".

Although several users said that they had reported the page, by 0700am this morning the page had not been taken down. Israeli newspaper the Jerusalem Post and UK religious publication the Jewish Chronicle have also reported on the story.

The page was removed by Facebook at approximately 1600hrs ST