A Muslim student who used a text-a-gag service has spoken of his horror after it sent him racist jokes.

Kameron Abbas condemned the telephone inquiry service 118 118 for sending the bigoted jibes.

The 21-year-old tried out the question/answer text service with a friend "for a laugh".

He sent texts requesting "Asian" jokes, which cost 60p each, on his 20-year-old friend Imran Shah's phone.

A 118 118 spokesman said they do not keep a stock of Asian jokes and a rogue Filipino operator, based in Manila, responded by sending back the racist jokes.

Sky News Online has decided not to repeat the 'gags' but will reveal that one referred to an Asian having his head pushed under water.
Another suggested Asian people should "go home".

The telephone company has personally apologised to Mr Abbas, a student at Preston's University of Central Lancashire.

He told the Lancashire Evening Post: "I was horrified at what we received and couldn't believe that 118 118 would send anything like what they did. It was promoting racism."

Other reports said he is now considering legal action against the firm, which admitted a "breach of standards".

We couldn't believe the response. It was more Bernard Manning than Harry Hill. It was disgraceful and these people should be reported,
Kameron Abbas told reporters.

Mark Hendrick, Labour MP for Preston, said: "If they're letting stuff out like this, they need to clean up their act."

A 118 118 spokesman said: "118 118 has investigated the lapse and identified the employee that sent the text and has reprimanded the individual concerned.

"118 118 is also putting all its customer-facing employees through further training, and is reinforcing procedural actions to minimise the risk of such an incident recurring in the future."