Racist abuse directed at Liverpool's Mario Balotelli on Twitter is being investigated by police.
The striker received a string of racist messages after he reacted to Manchester United's shock 5-3 defeat at Leicester City by posting: "Man Utd...LOL."
Merseyside Police have used the site to confirm they are looking into the messages.
"We can confirm officers are looking into offensive comments made on Twitter about Mario Balotelli earlier today," read a tweet from the force's official account.
When asked if they were launching an investigation, a spokesman for Merseyside Police said "yes, we are", and added: "As far as I am aware there have been no complaints but we have been made aware of it by a number of press inquiries."
Anti-discrimination body Kick It Out said earlier it was aware of the tweets and had reported them to the authorities.
The former Inter Milan, Manchester City and AC Milan player has been singled out for racist abuse in the past.
He was heckled by Italian supporters at a pre-World Cup training camp earlier this year and was on the receiving end of numerous instances of racist abuse during his time in Italy.
Balotelli spoke about the abuse in an interview with GQ earlier this summer.
"They aren't used to seeing people who are different, not white, who act not as rebels but normally, I think what the ignorant people don't like is that people who are different are allowed to act that way." he said.
"These stupid people, they get angry with me, they say horrible things, but I haven't done anything different from other people."
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