University probes claims of racist abuse chanted outside black student's room

Nottingham Trent University has pledged an urgent investigation into claims that racist abuse was chanted outside the room of a black student.

The university has been criticised for not acting sooner after a video capturing the abuse - including chants of "we hate the blacks" - was posted on Twitter by Rufaro Chisango.

A minute-long video clip posted on Wednesday captured at least two males chanting "we hate the blacks" and making other racist comments.

In a post on her Twitter account, Ms Chisango said reception staff at her halls of residence had told her that Monday night's incident would be "dealt with" but by Wednesday night she had heard nothing from them.

Writing on Twitter, Ms Chisango said: "I'm fuming, the way people in the same uni halls as me are chanting 'we hate the blacks' outside my bedroom door. Words cannot describe how sad this makes me feel, in this 2018 people think this is still acceptable.

"Okay this happened Monday night, the video wasn't able to catch what else they were saying which was 'blacks would go back to picking cotton'.

"I'm the only black person on my floor and they were chanting this outside my door so don't be surprised to why I didn't leave my room."

Other chants captured by the video include "We are the black haters" and "Sign the Brexit papers".

At one point during the video, a female interrupts the chants, saying: "Leave her alone."

In a statement posted on Twitter, Nottingham Trent University said: "We are investigating this as a matter of urgency. We are taking this extremely seriously and do not tolerate behaviour like this."

In a statement issued to the media, a spokeswoman for the university said it was "shocked and appalled" at the video.

The statement read: "This kind of vile behaviour will not be tolerated.

"Those suspected perpetrators have been suspended immediately pending a full investigation. We have contacted the student who made the complaint and are providing support to her and others affected. And we will be liaising with the police about this incident."

The statement added: "We value being a diverse global community, with staff and students from across the world.

"We are also working with our accommodation partner to understand why the university was only alerted to this on Wednesday evening after this was reported to them in the very early hours of Tuesday."