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Primark has pulled a Walking Dead T-shirt from stores after a horrified shopper branded it 'racially offensive'.

Ian Lucraft was offended by the white T-shirt with the message "eeny meeny miny moe" and a picture of a bloodied baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire while browsing in the discount store's branch in The Moor, Sheffield, with his wife Gwen.

Although the phrase and bat are both used by a character in popular horror drama The Walking Dead's final episode in the sixth series, Ian was shocked by its "subliminal messages," the Sheffield star reports.

Primark has since apologised and is removing the men's t-shirt from its shops after receiving Ian's complaint.

(Image: AMC/The Walking Dead)

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Ian said: "We were shocked when we came face to face with a new T-shirt with a racially explicit graphic and text.

"It was fantastically offensive and I can only assume that no-one in the process of ordering it knew what they were doing or were aware of its subliminal messages.

"The slogan is “Eeeny meenie miny moe…..” It stops there, but of course we all know what the original said: “catch a n***** by his toe."

In the clip from the Walking Dead, the word 'tiger' is used, instead of the N-word.

"Eeny, meeny, miny, moe" - which can be spelled a number of ways - is a popular children's counting rhyme, used to select a person in a variety of games such as tag.

But Ian sent a letter to Primark's Chief Executive asking for the t-shirt to come off sale straight away.

A spokesman for Primark said the T-shirt had now been withdrawn and added: “The T-shirt in question is licensed merchandise for the U.S. television series, The Walking Dead, and the quote and image are taken directly from the show.

"Any offence caused by its design was wholly unintentional and Primark sincerely apologises for this.

“Primark is currently removing the product from sale.”