Police are investigating an incident of racism towards Manchester City defender Micah Richards following the posting of a prejudicial comment on Twitter.

The 23-year-old is believed to have been sent a racist comment via the social networking site, prompting supporters of the defender to contact the police.

Richards sarcastically responded to the user, stating: "Love the racist abuse, keep it coming."

The police, quoted by Sky Sports News, said: "Thank you to all those who helped earlier, we will not tolerate racist comments. Also a warning to all that deleting comments does not work."

The user account on Twitter has now been made unavailable.