Great British Bake Off winner accidentally by Prue Leith on Twitter

The offending Tweet has since been deleted

Prue Leith has accidentally announced this year's winner of The Great British Bake Off just hours before airing on Channel 4.

"No one told me judging a #gbbo final would be so emotional," she wrote. "I wanted them all to win. Bravo." Leith then named the series winner.

The winner has since been revealed (click here to find out who). The tweet has since been removed but a screenshot can be seen below.

Twitter was taken aback by the announcement, immediately picking up on the mistake, many posting pictures of former judge Mary Berry.

"Oh my word," wrote one social media user. "Obviously a mistake but Prue Leith has just ruined tonight’s GBBO final for me and whoever else saw her tweet that’s just been deleted."

Another added: "I can't believe Prue just did that. I bet she was doing a scheduled tweet for later so she didn't have to watch live."

Leith has since spoken about the incident, saying: "I'm in too much of a state to talk about it."

The judge followed up the comments with another Tweet, writing: "I am so sorry to the fans of the show for my mistake this morning, I am in a different time zone and mortified by my error."

Channel 4 has said they have no further comment. This isn't the first time a Bake Off result has accidentally been announced early; during the 2015 series, Berry revealed one result a week early when giving an interview on the radio.

Meanwhile, Steven Carter-Bailey, Sophie Faldo, and Kate Lyon are the three finalists fighting to win the series. Catch up on everything that happened last week with our review.

The Bake Off finale will air tonight on Channel 4 at 8pm. Love Productions have been contacted for comment.