This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A man has been arrested after a racist tweet was posted about Liverpool football player Mohamed Salah.

Merseyside police said a 32-year-old man was arrested just before 9.30am on Thursday following an investigation into the offensive tweet, reportedly posted by an Everton fan, about the Egyptian-born Liverpool FC forward.

The man, from Waterloo, Merseyside, is being questioned on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence and obstructing an officer in the execution of their duty.

A force spokesman said: “Hate crime in any guise will not be tolerated and those who use the internet to target others, and who commit a criminal offence such as hate crime in doing so, need to understand that they are not beyond the law.”

The post was condemned by Everton. In a statement, the club said: “Everton condemns in the strongest terms any kind of racism.

“We have shared the material with the appropriate authorities and are looking into the matter further to understand if the Twitter user in question is known to the club in any way.”

Earlier in the week, Everton fans raised £3,000 to create a banner for new signing Moise Kean, who suffered racist abuse in Italy.

The spokesman said: “Seeing Moise stand up to racism like he did against Cagliari we wanted him to know here he doesn’t have to stand up against it alone.

“He will have thousands of blues by his side. While he goes to battle for us on the pitch, we go to battle off it supporting him as part of the great Everton family.”