A police chief has been forced to apologise for featuring a fake Muslim shouting "Allahu Akbar" in a major counter terrorism training exercise against Isil.

The exercise had depicted a suicide bomber detonating explosives and opening fire in the middle of a busy shopping mall.

But critics claimed the depiction of the terrorist "stereotyped" Muslims during the mock up at the Trafford Centre, near Manchester which was aimed at testing the emergency response to an extremist attack in the wake of ISIS led assaults on Paris and Brussels.

Dr Erinma Bell, who describes herself as a "Community Activist in Peace & Conflict Resolution" blasted on Twitter: