Coronation Street actor fired over ‘racially offensive’ tweets

Coronation Street star Marc Anwar has been sacked from the soap after posting "entirely unacceptable, racially offensive" comments about Indian people on Twitter.

The Pakistan-born actor (45), joined the soap as Sharif Nazir in February 2014 as a member of the first Muslim family on the cobbles.

The Sunday Mirror has published screenshots of messages posted on his private Twitter account that appear to hit out at India over Kashmir and call for Pakistani actors to stop working in the country.

They also refer to Indian people as “bastards” and “piss-drinking c***s”.

The actor, who has appeared in Hollywood films such as Captain Phillips and 51st State, was dismissed after the paper alerted ITV bosses, but it is believed he will still appear in some upcoming episodes because it is impossible to edit him out of scenes that have already been filmed.

However, soap bosses will do everything they can to minimise his presence in the show until his character can be written out.

An ITV spokeswoman said: “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.”

PA