British police today said they would investigate a Pakistani-born actor's anti-India rant on social media as a possible hate crime even as the former "Coronation Street" star apologised for the "unacceptable" language.
Marc Anwar, who was sacked yesterday from one of Britain's longest-running television soap operas after a series of "racially offensive" tweets, will be investigated by Greater Manchester Police.
"On Sunday 25 September, 2016 police received a report of a hate crime. Police have launched an investigation and inquiries are ongoing," a Greater Manchester Police spokesperson said.
The 45-year-old, who played a key Muslim character of Sharif Nazir on the show , today apologised for his tweets.
"I would like to offer my sincerest apologies to anyone that I may have offended with my tweets on Friday evening and especially people from India," he said in a video apology.
"This was never my intention and the language was unacceptable. I feel that I have let a lot of people down, my family, my friends and my former colleagues. This I very sincerely apologise for," he said.
'Sunday Mirror' had published screenshots of messages posted on Mr Anwar's private Twitter account which appeared to hit out at India over Kashmir using abuses for Indians.
Speaking to BBC on Monday, Mr Anwar said his Twitter account was private at the time the tweets were posted and he had not expected them to be widely read.
"My Twitter account was private because I didn't want to engage with anybody... I'm not a bigot, not a coward and not a liar. I'm definitely not a racist," he told BBC.
ITV channel had issued a statement after being alerted to the messages by the newspaper: "We are deeply shocked by the entirely unacceptable, racially offensive comments made on Twitter by Marc Anwar. We have talked to Marc and, as a consequence of his comments, he will not be returning to 'Coronation Street' with immediate effect".
The channel is expected to try and minimise the actor's presence in the show until his character can be eventually written out.
His remarks came days after the terror attack on an army base in Kashmir's Uri in which 18 soldiers were killed.