Armed police were called to the north London home of Mumsnet chief executive Justine Roberts in a so-called swatting attack, with the finger of blame for the hoax pointing at a troll called DadSecurity.

It is also feared the same trouble-maker and hacker has broken into the popular parenting website, with users being told to reset their passwords for security.

Ms Roberts said police officers arrived at her Islington home in the early hours after a false claim a "gunman was prowling around".

It is one of several attacks on Mumsnet and its users recently.

A now-suspended Twitter account - called @DadSecurity - claimed responsibility for launching a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on the night of August 11 that forced the site to temporarily shut down.

In taunting tweets it boasted "Now is the start of something wonderful", "RIP Mumsnet", "Nothing will be normal anymore" and "Our DDoS attacks are keeping you offline".

On the same night Ms Roberts was victim of a ‘swatting’ attack – a term referring to an internet troll making an emergency call to police to report a fake crime in the hope a SWAT team (an American acronym for Special Weapons and Tactics police unit) will be sent to the victim’s address.

Ms Roberts wrote to Mumsnet users, saying: "An armed response team turned up at my house last week in the middle of the night, after reports of a gunman prowling around.

"A Mumsnet user who engaged with @DadSecurity on Twitter was warned to 'prepare to be swatted by the best' in a tweet that included a picture of a swat team, after which police arrived at her house late at night following a report of gunshots.

"Needless to say, she and her young family were pretty shaken up.”

Ms Roberts said someone had also hacked into some of the site's administrative functions.

This meant they were able to redirect Mumsmet's homepage to the @DadSecurity Twitter profile page, as well as to edit posts from two users' accounts.

Over the weekend, a user reported that posts had been made under her name which were not by her and Mumsnet officials spotted two other cases where this had happened.

The fear is that the hacker, who also wrote about the hoax call-outs on a Mumsnet forum, had got hold of some users' passwords.

A Met Police spokesman was unable to comment on the swatting attack.

Scotland Yard said detectives were investigating a hoax call which brought armed police to an address in Islington, amid claims a murder had taken place.

The hoaxer called police on August 11 at 12.15am and said a man had murdered a woman there.

A spokesman said: "This was followed by a second call during which the caller stated he had members of his family held in a room.

"This call was assessed as requiring a firearms response.

"Local officers and firearms officers attended the address and carried out an assessment.

"Two people resident at the address were spoken to.

"The incident was treated as a hoax and the police response explained to those at the address."

No suspects have so far been identified.