AN OFFENSIVE message written on the wall of a top-rated Indian restaurant has been condemned as "mindless racism".

Staff and diners at Armaan Exquisite Indian Cuisine were shocked to find that vandals had scrawled the letters 'KKK' - referring to the Ku Klux Klan - on the side of the building in Outwood Road, Radcliffe.

The restaurant, which created 34 full and part-time jobs when it opened in September 2015, has become a firm favourite in the community and is rated by TripAdvisor as the best eatery in the entire borough.

Bury Council leader Cllr Rishi Shori noticed the abusive vandalism when he was eating at the restaurant on Wednesday and quickly alerted police.

He said: "I was there eating on Wednesday and I saw it on the side of restaurant.

"It is mindless racism. But if you look at it in the context of this particular business, they have come into Radcliffe and taken over what was a derelict building.

"They will be celebrating their first anniversary soon and they have invested their own money here and had great success.

"They should not have to put up with having this scrawled on their walls and then all the hassle it takes to remove it. All these things add up to a terrible situation.

"We want to encourage people to come into Radcliffe and this paints the town and its people in a bad way, when I know the people of Radcliffe are not racist.

"I want to challenge behaviour like this and I was impressed by the police response when I raised it with them."

Armaan has a 4.5 star rating on TripAdvisor, with 300 customer reviews calling it "excellent".

Inspector Jim Jones appealed for members of the public to come forward with information about the vandalism.

He said: "Behaviour like this will not be tolerated and we will make every effort to find those responsible.

"We encourage anybody who has any information to call either 101 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111."

When contacted by the Radcliffe Times, a spokesman for the restaurant did not wish to comment on the incident.