Brussels attacks: Croydon man arrested after tweet asking Muslim woman to 'explain' Brussels

The tweet said: 'I confronted a Muslim woman yesterday in Croydon. I asked her to explain Brussels. She said 'Nothing to do with me'. A mealy mouthed reply."'

Matthew Doyle (Twitter/Matthew Doyle)

A man from Croydon has been arrested after comments about confronting a Muslim woman in the street to explain the Brussels attacks were posted on Twitter.

On Wednesday morning. a tweet appeared on the Twitter account belonging to Matthew Doyle which said: "I confronted a Muslim woman yesterday in Croydon. I asked her to explain Brussels. She said 'Nothing to do with me'. A mealy mouthed reply."

It followed two co-ordinated terror attacks on the city which left at least 31 people dead and nearly 200 injured. Isis has claimed responsibility.

A spokesman for Scotland Yard said: "We have arrested a 46-year-old man on suspicion of inciting racial hatred on social media.

"He was arrested tonight at an address in Croydon and remains in custody at a south London police station."

The comment went viral and was widely retweeted on the social media site before being deleted.

Defending his comments, Mr Doyle told the Huffington Post he confronted the woman because she was wearing an Islamic headscarf.

He said: "She was wearing a flag. If I was walking down the street wearing a jacket emblazoned with a Union Jack then I would be open to some abuse."