WASHINGTON, Feb 8: A criminal inquiry was launched on Friday into how a hacker appeared to breach email accounts belonging to former presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, as well as other members of their family.

“There’s a criminal investigation under way,” Jim McGrath, a spokesman for the elder ex-president Bush, who is now aged 88 and was recently hospitalised, said, following reports that private communications had been accessed.

“I can’t get into the specifics,” McGrath added.

The investigative website The Smoking Gun reported that hackers had accessed several e-mail accounts and then published personal photos and private correspondence belonging to the former US leaders and their loved ones.

Separate email accounts used by prominent figures including CBS sportscaster Jim Nantz, a longtime Bush family friend, and others were also breached.

The hacker apparently intercepted photos that former president George W. Bush e-mailed to his sister showing paintings that he was working on, including self-portraits of him showering and in a bathtub, the report said.—AFP