Hackers invaded the Twitter account of Bolivia's state television on the eve of elections and issued a bogus tweet saying President Evo Morales had been gravely wounded in an assassination attempt.

Mr Morales responded by appearing at a news conference in the Chapare region, where he was playing football with fellow coca-grower union leaders. He blamed the hoax on political opponents.

Bolivia's first indigenous president is expected to win a third term and become the country's longest-serving leader.

The assassination attempt tweet was the first in a series of increasingly nonsensical outbursts from the account - one said the United States was at war with Bolivia.