AN ACTOR ON Coronation Street has been removed from the show after allegedly sending a series of racist tweets.
Marc Anwar, who plays character Sharif Nazir on the long-running soap, first joined the programme in 2014.
45-year-old Anwar, who is Pakistani, allegedly sent a number of tweets from his protected Twitter account criticising India with regards to its actions in the disputed Kashmir region.
The tweets allegedly referred to Indian people as ‘b******s’ and ‘p**s-drinking c***s’.
ITV was alerted to the existence of the tweets by the Sunday Mirror newspaper, which had published them.
“We are deeply shocked by the entirely unacceptable, racially offensive comments made on Twitter by Marc Anwar,” ITV said in statement.
We have talked to Marc and, as a consequence of his comments, he will not be returning to Coronation Street with immediate effect.
It’s believed that Anwar will continue to appear in scenes that have already been filmed for the programme as it would not be possible to edit him out entirely at such short notice, but that his character will then be written out of the show.
Anwar’s character, Sharif Nazir, is the patriarch of the first Muslim family to appear on Coronation Street.
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