EuroMillions site is targeted by Islamic hackers

Hackers have attacked the French site of the EuroMillions lottery, attacking it as the "devil's work" and posting Koranic verse in place of its homepage.

The messages warned people to quit gambling and consuming alcohol, saying that they were used by the devil, both of which are forbidden in Islam, to "sow hatred between yourselves and turn you away from God and prayer".

Posted in both French and Arabic, it read: "Oh you believers. Wine, games of chance, statues all augur impurity and are the work of the devil." A hacking group calling itself "Moroccanghosts" claimed responsibility for the attack. EuroMillions lottery operator La Francaise des Jeux (FDJ) said that none of its other games was affected in the attack, which French media reports said happened on Sunday morning. The EuroMillions homepage was unavailable last night and is currently redirecting visitors to the FDJ page.

A statement on that site said that all pages hit by the hackers were in "the process of being put back up". The company added that no personal data was compromised during the attack.

The Twitter user MoroccanGhosts posted a message yesterday in Arabic which read: "After hours... will penetrate the global gambling sites... (O ye who believe alcohol and gambling...)"

France has a population of 65 million, including an estimated four million Muslims, the largest Islamic population in western Europe. The EuroMillions lottery, launched in 2004, is now played in nine countries across western Europe: Austria, Belgium, Britain, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland.

More than �100m (£81m) is up for grabs in the next EuroMillions draw, which will take place this evening. The jackpot has rolled over eight times.