LONDON: Singer Adele is accused of plagiarising the work of a deceased Turkish singer named Ahmet Kaya for a track of her latest album 25.

Fans of Kaya claim her song Million years ago is a rip-off of his 1985 song titled Acilara tutunmak (or Clinging to pain), reports aceshowbiz.com.

Some social media users accuse Adele of “stealing” the melancholic tune from the Turkish singer, who died in France back in 2000.

“Adele has stolen a song from us,” Esra Nur Aydogan wrote alongside an image of a man hanging a Turkish flag on his balcony in protest. The post was later removed.

Ahmet’s widow Gulten Kaya, however, doubts Adele stole the song from her late husband, saying it was unlikely for a global star like her to do such a thing.

“However, if she consciously did it, then it would be theft,” Gulten was quoted as saying by Turkish daily Posta.

Adele’s representative hasn’t commented on the issue yet.