A Union Flag being flown upside down from Keighley Town Hall on the anniversary of the bloodiest battle of the First World War has sparked outrage.

A disgusted reader contacted the Keighley News about the blunder last Thursday, 94 years since an Anglo-French force fought the Germans at the Battle of the Somme.

More than 1.5 million people are thought to have died in that conflict alone.

Former RAF serviceman David Newiss, 66, from Grange Crescent in Riddlesden, spotted the flag foul-up.

He said: “These young men gave their lives all those years ago and if Keighley Town Hall cannot put the flag up the right way round — well — we would all be speaking German right now if our soldiers had been as bad. It is the same as these boys who are being flown home from Afghanistan now, they have given a lot for their country and deserve our respect and admiration — at least getting a flag the right way up.”

The Union Flag should be flown with the thick white parts of the diagonal cross nearest the flagpole above the thinner white parts.

On the flag flying above the Bradford Council-owned town hall last Thursday, the thick white parts of the flag were below the thin ones.

The Union Flag was historically flown upside down on forts as a sign of distress.

A Bradford Council spokesman said last Thursday: “Keighley Town Hall is very apologetic and will see that the flag is put the right way up as soon as possible.”