Racist graffiti has been removed after it was daubed on Colchester’s historic Roman wall.

The graffiti was spotted by a member of the Colchester Civic Society on the Roman Wall in Balkerne Hill on Monday.

The team flagged the “offensive” artwork with Colchester Council which sent a team to remove it.

In a Tweet the Colchester Civic Society said: “We were shocked today to get a report from one of our members flagging racist graffiti on BalkerneHill including on the Roman wall itself.

“We were delighted though that the town centre neighbourhood team sorted it so very quickly.

“Given its offensive nature, we haven't posted "before & after" photos but just wanted to flag the great work the @yourcolchester team do to try to keep on top of the ever growing #grottygraffiti menace.”

A Colchester Council spokesman urged people to report graffiti.

He said: “Our town centre neighbourhood team responded swiftly to reports of graffiti on Balkerne Hill and Colchester’s historic Roman Wall and carefully removed it within a very short time.

“We welcome and encourage the public to report any incidents of graffiti to us directly, via our website, at: http://www.colchester.gov.uk/graffiti”