Racial abuse silences BBC sports message board

A BBC cricket message board has been temporarily pulled after banter between Indian and Pakistani fans degenerated into out-and-out abuse, Reuters reports. Insults hurled included references to 9/11 and Hitler and general Hindu and Muslim bashing.

The BBC said the board had been more lively of late due to the current one-day series between hosts Pakistan and India, but a spokeswoman admitted it was "becoming too offensive and too much to manage". She added: "In order to stop any more offence being caused, they thought the best thing to do was to take down the board altogether and to let everyone have a bit of a cool down."

The Beeb hopes to have the Test Match Special South Asian board - which is "reactively moderated" under normal circumstances - back up again soon. A®