One of the ads for the party

A nightclub has apologised after staging an Ebola-themed Halloween party.

Bar Risa in Birmingham admitted making a "huge error" and said it plans to donate profits from last night's event to the Doctors Without Borders charity.

An advert for the student night declared the city's Broad Street district had been "infected" by the deadly disease and the World Health Organisation (WHO) was advising people to go to the bar for "decontamination and quarantine", according to the Birmingham Mail.

It comes as the WHO confirmed the death toll from Ebola has risen to nearly 5,000 people, mainly across Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

Promotions for the Ebola-themed party had been removed from Bar Risa's Facebook page today.

But the Birmingham Mail posted an image of an advert for the event which was described as "Halloween Ebola breakout party" and urged revellers to "head to Risa for decontamination".

According to the newspaper, the bar was decked out with fake biohazard tape reading "Quarantine" and promotions staff and bar tenders had been given hazmat-style contamination suits to wear.

Party-goers, many dressed as zombies, also had to walk through a "decontamination tunnel" to gain access to the club, the paper reported.

Twitter users criticised Bar Risa for staging the "insensitive" event.

Min Jhitta wrote: "Bar Risa are having an 'Ebola breakout party' for halloween? That's disgusting and so disrespectful."

Jason Alexander tweeted: "So bar risa in brum held an Ebola themed Halloween party.... #classy."

Another Twitter user said: "I cannot begin to put into words how bad taste & insensitive this #Ebola party is. You are a complete bunch of idiots."

A spokeswoman for Bar Risa said: "The event was run by a third party promoter and we can only apologise for such a huge error of judgement on our part in letting them run the event.

"We will be donating all profits to Doctors Without Borders and we wholeheartedly apologise to anyone we have offended."

Online Editors