Police have made an arrest over a “disturbing” video that shows a man following apparently Muslim schoolgirls in London and calling for them to be sterilised.

A man aged in his 60s has been taken into custody for questioning over the footage, which circulated on social media, the Metropolitan Police said.

He was arrested on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence on Monday.

In the video, a man can be heard muttering racist abuse about girls wearing headscarves as they leave a school in Bow, east London.

He films the girls through a bus window before getting off and following them down the street, calling them “black c***s” who are going to “breed like f***ing rats”.

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“We’re going to be f***ed with this lot,” he adds. “I think what we might have to do is think of something like old doctor Mengele […] so the c**ts can’t f***ing multiply.”

The man was seemingly referring to Josef Mengele, a Nazi doctor who performed deadly human experiments on prisoners at Auschwitz and tested tortuous methods of sterilisation on Jewish women.

Islamophobia monitoring group Tell Mama called the video “very disturbing”, while viewers expressed shock and disgust on social media.

Police said the girls in the video, pupils from Central Foundation Girls’ School, were unaware they were being filmed and had not reported the abuse.

The mayor of Tower Hamlets and local councillors condemned the “inflammatory” video and have offered support to the school.

A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said: “A man in his 60s has been arrested by police on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence.

“The arrest was made in connection with an incident which is believed to have taken place in Tower Hamlets.

“A video was posted online which showed schoolgirls some of whom were wearing hijab head coverings. A male voice on the clip was heard providing abusive and offensive commentary."

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She added: “The schoolgirls were unaware of the commentary and at this stage no reports have been made to police.