TOWIE’s Maria Fowler has been left fuming after a photo of her was stolen and used for a Facebook post about rape.

In the distressing image, Maria can be seen bleeding from both her nose and chin.

But, despite the Facebook post claiming that she had obtained her injuries during the sexual assaults that took place in Cologne on New Years Eve, the photo was actually taken in 2014, after Maria was brutally assaulted at a nightclub.

Sharing a screenshot of the post, Maria tweeted furiously: “Is this a joke? Some sick people saying I am a refugee who has been raped?

“How do I get this taken off?”

The photo was shared alongside an image of Danielle Lloyd, collapsed on a floor with blood on her face following a nightclub attack in 2009.

However, despite Maria’s initial confusion, it soon transpired that the site was not claiming that she was a refugee.

The images were, in fact, being used on the Facebook page of North West Infidels Fightback 31, a group that proclaims to make “a stand against radical Islam, Zionism, Communism, Irish Republicanism and the militant left”.

They captioned the images: “Police register over 500 cases in Cologne’s planned #Raperefugees assaults on NYE.

“133 cases have been reported in Hamburg, Berlin, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, and Bielefeld.

“Police have also registered cases of assaults, while attacks have also been reported in Finland, Austria, Sweden and Switzerland.”

Maria, stunned that her image was being used to incite hatred against refugees, decided to speak out against the owners of the Facebook page.

Speaking to the Mail Online, the reality TV star said: “I felt disgusted that my image was being used to incite hatred between races and countries and from what I have seen the page stands for some beliefs that are morally wrong.

"I was attacked in Britain by a British person so I was not pleased to see people calling refugees 'scum' for the 'attack'.

"It seems that whoever created this page wanted shocking images to cause uproar from 'British' people."

The image has since been removed from Facebook.