Primark have been forced to remove a run of ‘The Walking Dead‘ t-shirts from sale after receiving complaints that they were ‘racist and offensive’.

The offending items of clothing depicted a bloody baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire and featuring the phrase ‘Eeny, Meeny Miny, Moe’ – the line uttered by Negan, gang leader of The Saviours, before he attacks his victims with his bat named ‘Lucille’.

However, as Metro reports, one couple from Sheffield took offence at the shirts when Ian and Gwen Lucraft reported them to company bosses.

Methodist minister claimed that the phrase could easily be confused by that used in racist attacks which ends with ‘catch a n***er’ by his toe’.

“We were shocked when we came face to face with a new t-shirt with a racially explicit graphic and text,” he said. “It was fantastically offensive and I can only assume that no-one in the process of ordering it knew what they were doing or were aware of its subliminal messages.”

He continued: “[Everybody knows] the ‘Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe’ phrase continues with ‘catch a n*gger’ by his toe’, adding: ‘The graphic has a large American baseball bat, wrapped round with barbed wire, and covered with blood.”

“This image relates directly to the practice of assaulting black people in America. It is directly threatening of a racist assault, and if I were black and were faced by a wearer I would know just where I stood.”

Primark then decided to pull the shirts from sale after the complaint.

A spokesman said: “The t-shirt in question is licensed merchandise for the U.S. television series, The Walking Dead, and the quote and image are taken directly from the show. “Any offence caused by its design was wholly unintentional and Primark sincerely apologises for this.”

Meanwhile as the seventh season of ‘The Walking Dead’ continues, two major characters are rumoured to be leaving the programme.

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