POLICE have apologised after wrongly telling a woman that her brother had died.

It is believed that a man of the same name living in the town had died and the officers went to the wrong address in the belief that the woman was the correct next-of-kin.

The incident happened last Sunday afternoon in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, when police officers working with limited information were carrying out an inquiry into a non-suspicious death of a man in Aberdeen.

Police say that they "quickly identified" the error and have reviewed the circumstances surrounding why it happened.

A supervisor has since met with the affected family to offer an apology to them.

Chief Inspector Neil McDonald explained that the incident was down to "human error".

He said: "During the afternoon of Sunday 3 September, Police Scotland attended the sudden, non-suspicious death of a man in Aberdeen.

"Unfortunately there was only limited information available as to the identity of the deceased and police commenced enquiry to establish details of his next of kin.

"As part of that enquiry, officers attended at an address in Aberdeenshire where they believed deceased's immediate family resided.

"Unfortunately, it was established that this was not the correct next of kin.

"The error was quickly identified and I have reviewed the circumstances with it appearing to be attributable to human error.

"Whilst I am content that our officers were attempting to identity the next of kin in difficult circumstances, this should not have happened and a supervisor has met with the affected family and apologised to them."

In a post which has since been deleted from Facebook, the furious sister said that she had tearfully called her parents to tell them the news before the police realised their mistake.

The family have declined to comment on the incident further.