Melih Gökçek, who served as mayor for over two decades before standing down in 2017, was tricked by the tweet posted by a local newspaper columnist.

The tweet, coming after the discovery of oil reserves worth $1 billion, joked that Turkish authorities had also now discovered jelly bean reserves worth $6 billion.

Mr Gökçek referred to the tweet in a TV interview, denying suggestions from the presenter that it was “fake news”, TurkishMinute reports.

“They were discovered one after the other,” he affirmed, before admitting he did not know exactly what jelly beans are besides being “eaten by children”.