Surrey Police appeared to join in with seasonal tomfoolery by suggesting their officers are being issued with pink dusters today (April 1).

In a post from the Surrey Police Twitter account uploaded Monday morning, Surrey Police suggested their officers would be given pink feather dusters to carry while out on patrol.

The post added that the fanciful new equipment would not be used on those who had committed serious crimes.

Surrey Police said: "YES. As you may have read over the weekend, we've issued officers with pink dusters as standard issue equipment.

"But, NO, it's not 'to tickle the felons into submission'."

Elaborating on the apparent hoax, Surrey Police claimed the brightly-coloured dusters were in fact to be used by officers on the beat to clean CCTV cameras.

Surrey Police said: "It's actually so they can clean any CCTV, dash cams, or video doorbells they might see while out and about.

"A couple of seconds spent each time we see a camera can make a huge difference when we have to use the footage later to solve a crime!"