British Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservative Party fell short of a parliamentary majority in a national election on Thursday. Here is how the social media reacted to the hung parliament.

Social media users had a field day following Teresa May's election debacle in UK.
Social media users had a field day following Teresa May's election debacle in UK. (TRT World and Agencies)

A surprise hung parliament, misfiring high fives and candidates in costume - Britain's general election night had it all.

Here are a selection of the quirky moments that captured the attention of the British public.

As news the result spread, Twitter were quick to react to Theresa May's Conservative Party losing its parliamentary majority, with a Tweets-per-minute spike of 12,633 greeting the exit poll just after 10 pm (local time).

May's most retweeted message of the campaign was a post from May 20 (@theresa_may) in which the prime minister warned: "If I lose just six seats I will lose this election and Jeremy Corbyn will be sitting down to negotiate with Europe".

It was retweeted over 21,000 times.

Her gamble to call the snap election was mocked by many users, including former England soccer player Gary Lineker (@garyLineker) who posted: "I think Theresa May has won own goal of the season." The post was retweeted more than 29,000 times.

The surge in the vote for Corbyn's Labour party was attributed to a surge in turnout among voters aged 18-24, according to polling by Sky News.

Video clips of young people, including students at the London School of Economics, celebrating news of a hung parliament were shared widely on social media on Friday.

The PM recently revealed that the naughtiest thing she has ever done was "running through fields of wheat" as a child which made the farmers angry.

As the election results arrived, the revelation was picked up by social media.

#election #theresamay

A post shared by Amit Ghose (@amitzzz) on

Others asked for May to resign.

May's decision to form a coalition government with Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party didn't go well with many.

May's decision to call for early polls was called "amateur".

Some social media users smelled Russia's hand in the British polls.

Despite a better-than-expected performance for his party at the polls, Corbyn did have one embarrassing moment on election night.

A failed attempt at a high-five resulted in Corbyn slapping colleague Emily Thornberry in the chest, an image that was widely shared on social media.

Source: TRT World