Manchester United defender Ashley Young was the target of online racist abuse following their Champions League defeat to Barcelona on Tuesday.

Football's equality and inclusion organisation Kick it Out highlighted the incidents on social media, saying: "Yet another black player, this time Ashley Young, targeted with racist abuse on social media after tonight's Champions League game."

Manchester United say they are working to identify the individuals involved and have promised to "take the strongest possible action" against them.

0:48 Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says there is no room for racism in football. Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says there is no room for racism in football.

In a statement on Wednesday, the club said: "Manchester United utterly condemns racist social media comments posted around yesterday's Champions League fixture.

"We are working to identify individuals involved and we will take the strongest possible action we can against them.

"There is no place for racism within our game, or in society as a whole, and we are committed to working to make football free from all forms of discrimination."

It follows a number of high-profile cases of racism in recent months, with Raheem Sterling, Danny Rose and Mohamed Salah all targets of alleged racist abuse.

0:38 Wilfried Zaha says only tougher punishments will deter people from racially abusing players and that social media only makes the problem worse. (Warning: Flash photography) Wilfried Zaha says only tougher punishments will deter people from racially abusing players and that social media only makes the problem worse. (Warning: Flash photography)

Salah was the target of an alleged racist chant by several Chelsea supporters, while Sterling was the victim of alleged racial abuse at Chelsea late last year and while on international duty with England in Montenegro last month.

Last week, Arsenal launched an investigation into a video circulating on social media purporting to show one of their supporters directing a racist insult at Napoli player Kalidou Koulibaly.

Continuing in their post, Kick it Out called on Twitter to take action, adding: "Again, we're left asking Twitter the same question - when will you take serious action to tackle the rampant discrimination on your platform?"

2:11 Vincent Kompany believes there needs to be more diversity within the boardrooms of football authorities to address the problem of racism. Vincent Kompany believes there needs to be more diversity within the boardrooms of football authorities to address the problem of racism.

Twitter responded on Wednesday, confirming the posts concerned had violated its abusive behaviour policy and the account holders would be required to remove them before they could tweet again.

In addition, it will continue to monitor those accounts and to work with Kick It Out, whose intervention it welcomed.

A Twitter spokesperson said: "While we welcome people to express themselves freely on Twitter, we do not tolerate behaviour that crosses the line into abuse, hateful conduct or harassment. Abuse and harassment - no matter who the

victim - have no place on Twitter.

"Our team uses proprietary-built internal technology to proactively find abusive content and provides users with a single report that they can email to the police.

"Our Hateful Conduct Policy prohibits the promotion of violence against - or threats of attack towards - people on the basis of certain categories such as race and ethnic origin. As per these policies, we take strong enforcement action

if an incident violates our rules."