Two men from Essex have been arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated social media comments in the wake of the Manchester Arena attack.

Essex Police said a 53-year-old man from Colchester and a 39-year-old man from Chelmsford have been arrested in connection with offensive racially aggravated social media comments.

They have both been released under investigation while enquiries continue into these matters, which relate to messages posted on Twitter.

Chief Inspector Russ Cole said: “We will not tolerate hate crime in any form, whether it takes place online or in the street, and we take all reports of incidents seriously.”

Police would not confirm anything to do with the content of the Tweets, but did state the posts were made after the Manchester Arena attack on Monday night, which killed 22 people including children. So called Islamic State have claimed responsibility for the attack.

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How do you report a hate crime?

Essex Police have issued the following advice:

There are several ways in which you can report a hate crime incident.

• In an emergency, call 999.

• Call 101 to report all non-urgent cases or report them online at www.essex.police.uk

• There are also Hate Incident Reporting Centres across Essex where victims or witnesses can report crimes to specially trained hate crime ambassadors. To find your nearest centre, visit www.essex.police.uk/advice/hate-crime

• You can also report incidents via the True Vision website at www.report-it.org.uk

• Or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111 or www.crimestoppers-uk.org