Marine Le Pen takes down image of US reporter’s execution

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has taken down a tweet showing the execution of US reporter James Foley after his family protested — but left up two other gruesome images of violence by Islamic State (IS) extremists.

French authorities are investigating the tweets, which Le Pen posted in response to a journalist who made an analogy between her National Front party and IS.

Le Pen said she was trying to show the difference between the two but the effort drew widespread condemnation, and the interior minister accused her of fomenting IS propaganda.

Foley’s mother Diane had said on French radio RTL that the tweets “add to the family’s pain”.

A statement said the family were “deeply disturbed by the unsolicited use of Jim for Le Pen’s political gain”, and wanted the photos taken down “immediately”.

Soon afterwards, Le Pen’s tweet of Foley disappeared, but two other tweets with images of IS executions remained on her Twitter account.

National Front spokesman Alain Vizier would not comment on why Le Pen took down the photo of Foley, who was captured in 2012 and beheaded last year, apparently by Briton Mohammed Emwazi, known as ‘Jihadi John’.

However, speaking later, Le Pen said: “I did not know it was a photograph of James Foley. It can be accessed by anyone on Google.

"I learned this morning that his family has asked for it to be removed and of course I took it down immediately.”