Primark Boston. Image: Wikiklrsc at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0

Primark have removed a range of t-shirts from their stores after complaints of racism.

The piece of clothing reads ‘EENY MEENY MINY MOE’ and has an image of an American baseball bat covered in barbed wire and blood.

The design of the t-shirt is inspired by the TV programme The Walking Dead.

The reference relates to a scene in the finale of the sixth series where the villain Negan, played by Jeffery Dean Morgan, is deciding whom to kill by using the nursery rhyme.

Some customers are unhappy and as a result there have been complaints.

1 – The Primark T-Shirt doesn’t even say The Walking Dead on the front, it’s just violent imagery paired with a racial taunt – bad design

— blender. (@cheyennelouiseb) February 21, 2017

A couple from Sheffield, Ian and Gwen Lucraft spotted the top in store and wrote a letter to Primark’s chief executive Paul Marchant saying it is offensive.

The couple points out the rhyme ‘Eeny Meeny Miny Moe’ has been around since the 18th century with the original line ‘catch a n***** by his toe’.

According to The Independent Ian Lucraft has said ‘we were shocked when we came face to face with a new t-shirt with a racially explicit graphic and text.’

A spokesperson from Primark has said ‘any offence caused by its design was wholly unintentional and Primark sincerely apologises for this.’

The range has now been removed from all stores.