An IT consultant from India has been flooded with tweets from Manchester United fans.

The Mirror reports United fans trying to congratulate hat-trick hero Van Persie bombarded the wrong RVP with praise yesterday.

They accidentally sent Twitter messages to a 52-year-old IT consultant in India, Ravi Visvesvaraya Sharada Prasad, who has the handle @rvp.

Robin van Persie's correct Twitter handle is @Persie_Official, but fans often refer to the Dutchman by his initials RVP.

Prasad was bombarded with more than 10,000 mentions in the past 24 hours.

One fan tweeted: "@rvp You really made the difference for us this season, well done."

As soon as Prasad, from Delhi, realised what was going on, he sent a message saying: "RVP is NOT the account of Robin van Persie."

But the mix-up eventually caused some jovial responses from fans, with one saying: "He consults when he wants, Ravi Visvesvaraya Prasad, he consults when he wants."