Google apologises to Indian PM Narendra Modi after he appears in list of top 10 criminals

The internet giant reportedly put the mistake down to a British daily which published an image with 'erroneous metadata'

Google apologised for Narendra Modi's appearance in the list of criminals (Alex Wong/ Getty)

Google has apologised to India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, after his image appeared in search results for the “top 10 criminals”.

When image search is used, Mr Modi features heavily in Google’s results, which prominently features images of terrorists, murderers and dictators.

While Mr Modi is frequently shown on in search results, George W. Bush also makes an appearance in the list.

Many images show the likes of Osama bin Laden, the founder of al-Qaeda, who was killed in a United States raid in 2011.

Time magazine reported that Google explained that the results were due to “a British daily publishing an image of Modi with erroneous metadata”.

The search pictures the Indian PM and George W Bush, amongst others (Google)

Dawood Ibrahim was also found when “top 10 criminals” was searched for. Mr Ibrahim is the leader of an Indian organised crime syndicate called D-Company, based in Mumbai.

A spokesperson for Google said in a statement: "These results trouble us and are not reflective of the opinions of Google.

"Sometimes, the way images are described on the internet can yield surprising results to specific queries.

"We're continually working to improve our algorithms to prevent unexpected results like this.

"We apologise for any confusion or misunderstanding this has caused."