Image copyright AFP/Getty Image caption Six worshippers were killed in the attack

Fox News has removed a tweet saying a suspect in the Quebec mosque attack was of Moroccan origin, after a request by the Canadian prime minister's office.

Justin Trudeau's communications chief, Kate Purchase, said Fox was "spreading misinformation" with the tweet, which was based on early reports.

Six Muslim worshippers were shot dead as they prayed and 19 others wounded.

French-Canadian student Alexandre Bissonette was subsequently charged. Fox News has apologised for the tweet.

"FoxNews.com initially corrected the misreported information with a tweet and an update to the story on Monday," managing director Refet Kaplan told the BBC.

"The earlier tweets have now been deleted. We regret the error."

Image copyright @FoxNews Image caption The Fox tweet remained on its feed as of Tuesday evening

"Suspect in Quebec mosque terror attack was of Moroccan origin, reports show," the offending tweet had said.

Some early reports had in fact said that one of two men arrested was of Moroccan origin but the man was later deemed to be a witness and released without charge.

Fox's story was updated to reflect this but the news organisation did not, at first, remove its tweet. The Fox News Twitter account has 13m followers.

Kate Purchase tweeted Fox asking it to "either retract or update the tweet to reflect the suspect's actual identity".

"We need to remain focused on keeping our communities safe and united instead of trying to build walls and scapegoat communities," she added.

After the tweet was removed, she responded on Twitter: "Thank you @FoxNews for deleting the tweet. We appreciate it."