Hillary Clinton has attacked Donald Trump as "blatantly antisemitic" for a tweet that featured a six-pointed star.

The tweet from the Republican presidential hopeful depicted Clinton on a background of cash with a symbol that resembled a Star of David. The star contained the description, "most corrupt candidate ever!" in reference to the Democrat candidate.

It prompted a furious backlash on social media for its apparently antisemitic undertones. The reaction only intensified when it emerged the image first appeared on /pol/, according to the news site Mic.com. The far-right messaging site shared the image more than a week before Trump's campaign did. It appeared under a thread named HillHistory.jpg, a possible nod to the neo-Nazi code for "HH" or "Heil Hitler", according to Mic.com.

Clinton's campaign told US media: "Donald Trump's use of a blatantly anti-Semitic image from racist websites to promote his campaign would be disturbing enough.

"But the fact that it's part of a pattern should give voters major cause for concern."

Trump retorted with a statement of his own that said accusations of antisemitism were "ridiculous" and it was a "basic star, often used by sheriffs".

The image was first shared by Donald Trump's account on twitter on Saturday morning. But hours later it was deleted and the image was shared again but with the star changed to a circle.

Trump's campaign team have denied the image was taken from an antisemitic website. The New York billionaire accused Clinton of trying to take attention away from her husband's meeting with the US attorney-general.

Trump has previously been attacked for reposting comments made on white supremacist forums and was criticised for not immediately distancing himself from David Duke, a leader of the Ku Klux Klan, who had endorsed him.