London Olympic 2012 organisers are performing a world class sprint of their own after a mistake worthy of gold medal status.

New posters promoting the London 2012 Festival have appeared across the capital with one of the most recognisable landmarks air-brushed out.

World famous warship HMS Belfast was mysteriously missing from promotional posters - prompting some to even question the games' sense of loyalty to Remembrance Sunday.

Now organisers are ripping down the offending posters after admitting it was caused by a "simple mistake."

“We are very sorry about this mistake in the advertising production process, and we apologise if this mistake has caused offence. The mistake has been rectified and posters without HMS Belfast in are being removed," they said in a statement on Wednesday.

The error is said to have happened after a third party advertising agency was hired to produce the eye-catching posters.

Two versions were made - landscape and portrait - with the ship being removed from the landscape version because it was blocked by the Olympic slogan and made reading it difficult.

But when it came to designing the portrait version designers forgot to use the original image - instead using the air-brushed copy.

HMS Belfast has been air-brushed from the Olympic posters

The error has sparked huge reaction, led by the Daily Mail which headlined its story: "Are Olympics chiefs ashamed of our proud military history? Just days before Remembrance Sunday, HMS Belfast is airbrushed from poster"

It quoted Sir James Eberle, who served on HMS Belfast between 1944 and 1945 and again during the Korean war, said he was 'horrified'.

The former Supreme Commander of Nato and Commander-in-chief of the UK fleet said: 'Hearing this news horrifies me. I'm astonished that the HMS Belfast could be so thoughtlessly removed.