NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian police are investigating hackers who infiltrated Twitter accounts belonging to the opposition Congress party and sent out a barrage of abusive posts.

The hackers targeted the party's main Twitter account and that of party vice president Rahul Gandhi, posting racist and homophobic slurs in expletive-laden messages, party spokesman Randeep Surjewala said Thursday.

They also attacked the party's website and servers, and threatened to publish private emails of Congress members, Surjewala said. The posts were quickly deleted.

The Indian government minister in charge of information technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad, said he asked Twitter to remove the offensive tweets. Congress party leader Kapil Sibal urged the government to ensure better online security.

New Delhi police said they were investigating and had asked Twitter to provide details of the hackers, including their IP address.