Tourists are being told to avoid areas of London 'populated by Indians, Pakistanis and black people' in a Chinese airline's in-flight magazine.

Wings of China, the in-flight magazine for Air China, made the 'racist' comment in a travel article on the UK capital.

The article, printed in both English and Chinese, said: 'London is generally a safe place to travel, however precautions are needed when entering areas mainly populated by Indians, Pakistanis and black people.'

The article in the latest issue of Wings of China magazine was printed in both English and Chinese as pictured above

Chinese journalist Haze Fan tweeted a picture of the advice after reading the magazine while travelling with colleagues on Tuesday

Air China is Asia's third largest airline and operates twice daily flights between London and Beijing.

Chinese journalist Haze Fan tweeted a picture of the advice after reading the magazine while travelling with colleagues on Tuesday.

Ms Fan said she is a 'big fan' of London, having lived in the city for a year doing a masters course.

In the tweet she asked Mayor of London Sadiq Khan what he thought of the article.

People immediately responded on social media, calling the phrase - which is repeated in both Mandarin and English in the magazine - 'racist.'

Wings of China, the in-flight magazine for Air China, made the 'racist' comment in a travel article on the UK capital (file photo)

The article continued: 'We advise tourists not to go out alone at night, and females always to be accompanied by another person when travelling.'

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, Labour MP for Tooting which has one of the largest Indian and Pakistani populations in London, said: 'My initial thoughts were that the comments were outrageous.

'I think that it is offensive to Londoners and I would like to see it removed. I would also like to ask the airline why they thought these precautions needed to be taken.

'Why they feel they needed to warn people of something that is not reflective of London at all?

'I think it is offensive to all Londoners, not just the ethnic minorities mentioned.

The article said: 'London is generally a safe place to travel, however precautions are needed when entering areas mainly populated by Indians, Pakistanis and black people' (file photo)

'We pride ourselves on having a wonderfully diverse community, and this may mean people come here with a different idea, it is worrying that some may arrive concerned.

'I am going to be writing to the Chinese Ambassador to invite him to visit Tooting in London, where all races live side by side. Then they can see how we live and our wonderfully diverse community.'

Virendra Sharma, Labour MP for Ealing Southall, added on Twitter: 'This is offensive and I hope AirChina will remove this magazine and apologise immediately.'

According to government agency VisitBritain, more than 270,000 Chinese people visited Britain in 2015, up 46 per cent on 2014, and they spent £586 million in total (up 18 per cent on 2014).

It's not the first time a Chinese company has been caught up in a race row over advertorial or commercial content.

In May a Chinese cosmetics company had to apologise for a detergent advert which showed a black man being put in a washing machine and emerging as a smiling, clean, Asian man.

The campaign was widely criticised as 'the most racist commercial ever'.