A 12 year-old boy has been arrested after footballer Wilfried Zaha shared a racist message he received online.
The Crystal Palace forward tweeted a series of photos of racist messages he had received on Instagram overnight.
Zaha shared the abuse he received with his 800,000-plus followers on Twitter with the caption "woke up to this today."
West Midlands Police immediately responded to the post saying that they were investigating the account which sent the messages and encouraged Zaha to report it to the Metropolitan Police as well.
Hours later, the West Midlands force said that it had arrested a 12-year-old boy in connection with the racist messages.
Announcing the arrest via their Twitter account, West Midlands Police said: "We were alerted to a series of racist messages sent to a footballer today after looking into them and conducting checks, we have arrested a boy.
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"The 12-year-old from Solihull has been taken to custody.
"Thanks to everyone who raised it. Racism won't be tolerated."
Responding to the incident, Crystal Palace issued a statement condemning the abuse and expressed support for their player.
The club's tweet read: "This is an absolute disgrace and should not be happening. We stand with you, Wilf, and anyone else who has to suffer such horrific abuse."
The incident occurred shortly before Crystal Palace's match against Aston Villa at Villa Park which Zaha's side lost 2-0.
