Two men 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.”

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

In an emergency, please 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