Britain’s Got Talent 2017: Viewers accuse show of 'cheating' after technical hitch appears to show children’s choir miming

Viewers accused Britain’s Got Talent of cheating after a technical issue on Monday’s show seemed to suggest St Patrick's Junior Choir were miming rather than performing live.

The children’s group from Northern Ireland were about to kick off the first of the week’s live semi-finals when their performance of Katy Perry’s Roar got off to an imperfect start.

Ant and Dec rushed on stage, explaining that technical issues meant the choir would have to wait a few moments before they could sing.

Ant could be heard saying: “Two secs, two secs, two secs, is everything ok?”

And Dec added: “Gonna just stop it there – we’ve just had a few technical issues.”

While the group were waiting for the glitch to be resolved, a backing track began and the sound of children's voices could be heard. However, the members of the choir didn’t appear to be singing.

Many expressed their shock on social media, with Matthew Frost commenting “The awkward moment they play the backing track only to reveal the children don’t actually sing all of it…”

During the results show later on in the evening, it was revealed that St Patrick's Junior Choir hadn't made it to the final of the competition, losing out to magicians DNA and singer Kyle Tomlinson.

It was unclear whether the allegations of cheating or the technical issue itself had affected their share of the public vote.

The next Britain's Got Talent semi-final will air tonight at 7.30pm followed by a results show at 9.30pm.