A teenage lesbian couple claim they were forced to leave McDonald’s after a cleaner told them kissing each other ‘wasn’t appropriate’.

Sixth form student Kristeen Ferenczi, 16, says they felt pressured to walk out of the fast food outlet in Bolton town centre after she gave her 17-year-old girlfriend a kiss on the cheek.

Kristeen says they were both left in tears by the 'homophobia'.

McDonald’s have apologised to the couple and have launched a full investigation.

The couple had been eating in the restaurant with a family member at around 12.30pm on Thursday, February 9, when they were approached by the cleaner, they said.

Kristeen, who lives in Farnworth, told the M.E.N: “We were sitting down with my girlfriend and my girlfriend’s cousin having a meal.

“When he got up to go I noticed this woman just lingering around us, and as I kissed my girlfriend on the cheek she came over and told us it wasn’t appropriate, and implied for us to leave.

“I turned round and said ‘are you homophobic?’ but she wouldn’t answer. You see a lot worse in McDonald’s, there was nothing inappropriate about us kissing on the cheek.

“When I rang the management to complain they said if it happens again they will talk to her, but it’s not good enough. We are not going to come back.

“We have had people say things to us in the past but we have never had someone approach us and kick us out before.

“It made us feel awful, we were walking out and we didn’t know what to do, so we just started crying. That’s all we felt we could do.”

The girls, who have been going out for almost a year, both attend Bolton Sixth Form College, and were regular diners at the restaurant before the alleged incident.”

Kristeen added: “They rang us a couple of days ago saying that they would be in touch with the cleaner to talk to her, but we were still discriminated against, we don’t feel that’s enough. We want an apology.”

A McDonald's spokesman later said: “We are extremely sorry for Ms Ferenczi and her partners’ experience and have taken this complaint very seriously.

"An internal investigation is currently underway and we would like to make it clear that discrimination of this nature is wholly unacceptable and not, in any way, tolerated by McDonald’s.”