England Euro 2020: Probe into racist Facebook posts continues

Racist posts appeared on a councillor's Facebook page after England's defeat to Italy on penalties

A man arrested over the racial abuse of England footballers has been released pending further inquiries.

The police probe in Shropshire comes amid the resignation of a councillor who denies posting racist Facebook comments about England penalty takers.

Paul Bradbury, independent, quit Pontesbury Parish Council on Monday, saying his account was hacked.

Police said the released man had been detained originally on suspicion of inciting racial hatred.

The West Mercia force said he was in his 60s and from the Minsterley area of the county.

On Monday the council confirmed it had reported to police comments posted on Mr Bradbury's Facebook page.

The racist messages appeared on Sunday night after England's Euro 2020 final defeat on penalties and have since been deleted.

'Easy to guess'

The local authority said the comments did "not represent the views of this council".

It added: "We find these comments strongly offensive and will not tolerate racism nor discrimination of any kind."

Mr Bradbury said his Facebook password had been "quite a simple and easy one to guess".

He said he had been alerted to the comments when people had sent him direct messages and added: "Someone got into my personal account, it's not the first time."

He said the posts then "just disappeared".

On the subject of a police probe in the county, Ch Insp Mark Reilly said: "We want to be absolutely clear - we have a zero tolerance policy for discrimination in all forms, including online abuse. We will investigate reports and act."

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There has been widespread criticism of racist abuse directed at three England penalty-takers who had their spot-kicks saved on Sunday.

A number of England players have spoken out in support of Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka, and the FA said it was "appalled" by the online racism directed at those who failed to convert their shots.

Chief Constable Mark Roberts, the National Police Chiefs' Council football policing lead, said officers were working with Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and inquiries were "already being progressed".

Twitter said it had removed more than 1,000 posts in the 24 hours after the final and suspended a number of accounts for violating its rules.

Facebook said: "We quickly removed comments and accounts directing abuse at England's footballers [on Sunday night] and we'll continue to take action against those that break our rules."