Savills agent arrested by police over racist tweet ...

Greater Manchester Police have arrested the Savills estate agent who allegedly posted a racist tweet about black England football stars after the team lost the Euros final to Italy.

Andrew Bone, 37, self-presented at Cheadle Heath police station this morning and was arrested on suspicion of an offence under Section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act.

The Daily Mail reports that three officers carrying evidence bags could be seen searching Bone's terraced home in Manchester and spent 20 minutes gathering evidence before they left clutching a laptop.

In a statement this afternoon, Detective Inspector Matt Gregory of the Greater Manchester Police force's Trafford division said: "The actions of a small number of people overshadowed what was a hugely unifying event for our country on Sunday evening. We are firm in our commitment, any racist abuse whether online or off is not acceptable."

Gregory continued: "We now have one man in custody and our investigation continues. If you think you have information on this post, we’d like to hear from you on 0161 856 4973 quoting incident number 109 of 12/7/2021."

On Monday - around 16 hours after the offensive tweet was seen to have been sent from the personal Twitter account of an employee, and after a torrent of criticism on social media - Savills issued a statement saying: “Savills confirms that the staff member connected with the racist comments on Twitter claims that his account was taken over by a third party and that the matter is being referred to the Greater Manchester Police. Savills has acted swiftly and confirms that the individual is suspended from duty pending the findings of this investigation, which is being progressed as a priority. Savills has a policy of zero tolerance on any form of racial abuse or discrimination.”