Sir Rod Stewart apologises over 'mock execution'

Sir Rod Stewart has offered his "deepest apologies" after he was filmed appearing to stage a mock execution in the desert.

A video posted on social media appeared to show the singer re-enact a beheading similar to those used by so-called Islamic State.

But the 72-year-old said his actions were "misinterpreted".

Sir Rod said he and his friends were "playing out Game Of Thrones" while "larking about" before a show.

The clip has since been deleted from his wife Penny Lancaster's Instagram account.

It showed the couple with friends while on his world tour, which took him to Abu Dhabi on Thursday.

In a statement, the star said: "From re-enacting the Beatles' Abbey Road crossing to spontaneously playing out Game Of Thrones, we were simply larking about pre-show.

"Understandably, this has been misinterpreted and I send my deepest apologies to those who have been offended."

Sir Rod is seen in the video leading a line of friends, with Lancaster at the back, along the sand dunes.

Lancaster, 45, rolls down the dunes, and then stretches out on the sand.

'Absolutely sickened'

The singer stands behind her and appears to put his hand across the neck of a friend, who is sitting in front of him.

Former hostage John McCarthy told BBC Radio Scotland's John Beattie programme that the singer had turned "a grotesque thing into a kind of pantomime".

The journalist, who was kidnapped in Lebanon in 1986, said it was unclear whether Sir Rod was "larking about" or thinking seriously about the fate of some hostages.

Relatives of other kidnap victims would be "absolutely sickened" if the star was making light of their plight, he added.

"Your blood runs cold just imagining what it must be like to be in that situation in the last moments of your life or, indeed, as relatives to see that," he said.