Police are investigating after death threats were made to staff at an independent local news website.

Abusive comments directed at reporters and other readers were left below a Bedford Independent report on 15 April, shared on the paper’s Facebook page, about five men found guilty of murdering a drug dealer.

The poster was blocked from commenting, but later that night called the newspaper’s commercial director, Julia Course-Crofts, whose number could be found online, and left two “graphic” voicemail messages.