Justin Beiber has used Twitter to announce his retirement.

In a tweet that caused a Christmas Day social media frenzy, the 19-year-old superstar said: “My beloved beliebers I’m officially retiring.”

But he later tweeted that he would never leave his fans and that he was “here forever”.

The original tweet was retweeted almost 200,000 time in three hours, according to Twitter.

This is not the first time the celebrity has hinted that he plans to retire.

He told a Los Angeles radio station on December 19 that he intended to take a break from his music career.