London: Greater Manchester Police on Sunday said that four people were arrested for allegedly inciting racial hatred by referencing the Friday's terror attacks at two mosques in New Zealand's Christchurch city which left 50 people dead.
Calling the incidents as "racially aggravated", law enforcement personnel in Queensway, Rochdale arrested a 33-year-old man and a 34-year-old woman after they received reports that a taxi driver was being allegedly abused and threatened by people, CNN reported.
The two suspects were charged with hate speech offences and will be interrogated by the police later in the day, police said. In a separate incident, a 38-year-old woman was arrested in Rochdale for her alleged inflammatory comments on the Christchurch terror attacks on social media. She is in custody and is being questioned by the police.
Furthermore, a 24-year-old man had been arrested in Oldham over a social media post praising and extending support to the 28-year-old gunman, named Brenton Harrison Tarrant.
Terming the acts as "disgusting", Assistant Chief Constable for Greater Manchester Police, Russ Jackson, said that the suspects would be prosecuted if any evidence was found against them.
"Some of these comments are frankly disgusting. I am amazed how some people think it is acceptable to make such careless and disrespectful remarks. The events which happened two days ago in New Zealand continue to cause huge upset with people of all faiths from across Greater Manchester," Jackson said.
"It is absolutely clear that compassion and support is how the overwhelming majority of people feel and, as always, Greater Manchester stands together," he added.
Social networking giant Facebook announced on Sunday that it had taken down 1.5 million videos of the twin attacks in Christchurch. It said that 1.2 million videos for uploading were blocked, which means that users have not seen them.
New Zealand is currently on a state of high alert after the Australian-born gunman, who is believed to have lived in Dunedin, killed 50 people in Al Noor and Linwood mosques in Christchurch.
Tarrant live-streamed his gruesome act on Facebook for 17 minutes and police believe that the accused had single-handedly carried out the terror attack at both the mosques under a span of 36 minutes during the Friday prayers for which a large number of worshippers had congregated.
Using automatic weapons, the 28-year-old gunman launched a "well-planned" attack on the mosques when devotees had assembled for the weekly prayers, following which mosques across the country were advised to shut down.
Tarrant, who appeared before a Christchurch court on murder charges on Saturday, was remanded in custody without plea until April 5.
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A 24-year-old man had been arrested in Oldham over a social media post praising and extending support to the 28-year-old gunman, named Brenton Harrison Tarrant

Four people arrested in UK for referencing Christchurch mosque attacks

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Four people arrested in UK for referencing Christchurch mosque attacks

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