High street retailer Zara has pulled a striped shirt featuring a yellow star on the front on Wednesday after social media users likened it to the uniform worn by Jewish prisoners in concentration camps during the second world war.

The striped “sheriff” T-shirt, aimed at children aged three months to three years, drew criticism for a design which featured white and blue stripes and a six-pointed yellow star on the front. The star itself had the word “sheriff” written across it, which was not completely clear in the zoomed-out images on the Spanish chain’s website.

But from first glance, many people felt the shirt bore too close a resemblance to the striped uniform and yellow star Jewish prisoners were forced to wear during the Holocaust.

Oh #Zara, really? As if the text on your shirt 'White is the new black' wasn't bad enough. pic.twitter.com/wfww1RO8aA — Wouter W. (@victorginori) August 27, 2014

The shirt was available via Zara’s UK homepage as well as in a number of its international outlets, including Israel, France, Denmark, Albania and Sweden. Israeli journalist Dimi Reider was among the first to notice the resemblance.

Writing on 972mag.com, he said: “It’s a SHERIFF shirt for your three-year-old. Obviously. What else could it be?

“Why, what else does it remind you of?”

The retailer has since apologised, in several languages on its Twitter feed, and confirmed the shirt is no longer on sale.

@eylanezekiel We honestly apologize, it was inspired by the sheriff’s stars from the Classic Western films and is no longer in our stores — ZARA (@ZARA) August 27, 2014

@christianmutter Wir bitten um Entschuldigung. Das T-Shirt hat sich an den Westernfilmen inspiriert und ist nicht mehr in Filialen verfügbar — ZARA (@ZARA) August 27, 2014

A spokesperson for Zara’s parent company Inditex said: “The item in question has now been removed from all Zara stores and Zara.com.

“The garment was inspired by the classic Western films, but we now recognise that the design could be seen as insensitive and apologise sincerely for any offence caused to our customers.”

This is not the first time Zara has made an unfortunate design choice. In 2007, the retailer withdrew a handbag from its stories after one customer pointed out the design featured swastikas.