Paramount Pictures was a bit shell-shocked by internet outrage before removing images from its Twitter and Facebook pages Tuesday that promoted the Australian release of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film due to an inadvertent Sept. 11 reference.

While the Michael Bay-produced picture is set for release Aug. 8 in the U.S., Australians will have to wait until Sept. 11 to see the movie. Promotional images posted online Tuesday from the @ParamountAU account for the down under premiere show the four main characters: Michaelangelo, Donatello, Rafael and Leonardo falling from an exploding New York skyscraper, eerily reminiscent of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

The film studio has apologized for the TMNT poster.

"Combining that image and date was a mistake," Tom Roache, the head of publicity for Paramount Pictures Australia, said in a statement. "We are deeply sorry to have used that artwork for the marketing materials promoting the September 11 opening in Australia ... We intended no offense and have taken immediate action to discontinue its use."

The poster imagery sparked some backlash surrounding the 9/11 similarities, where hijacked planes crashed into the two towers and many people trapped in the building jumped to their death before the buildings collapsed.

"Really?" The Age journalist Suzanne Carbone tweeted. "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles jump out of fiery NY tower in poster for film released Sep 11."

Others seemed more accepting of the poster, surmising that it was an honest mistake by the studio and would not have the same potency outside of the United States.

"Target demographic is either too young to remember or born after 9/11, and this is a foreign market[.] I forgive them," Alex Shuba wrote online.

The motion picture is directed by Jonathan Liebesman and features Megan Fox and Will Arnett along with the voices of actors such as Johnny Knoxville and Tony Shaloub.