Japanese games company Kojima Productions has said that it will be taking legal action following misinformation linking Hideo Kojima to the assassination of Shinzo Abe.

Last Friday, the former Japanese prime minister was assassinated during a speech for the country's upcoming elections. To some – as reported by VGC – the assassin looked similar to Kojima, leading to some pretty severe misinformation. That includes French far-right politician Damien Rieu, who retweeted pictures of Kojima saying that "The extreme left kills". He has since deleted the tweets and apologised.

“I naively took a joke for information,” Rieu wrote.

“I didn’t think we could make humor about the assassination of a man but I was wrong not to check before sharing. My apologies to Hideo Kojima and to the fans of Metal Gear.”

The fake news was also picked up by a broadcaster in Greece and an Iranian news agency.

Taking to Twitter, Kojima Productions is pulling no punches.

“Kojima Productions strongly condemns the spread of fake news and rumors that convey false information,” the studio wrote. “We do not tolerate such libel and will consider taking legal action in some cases.”