Pakistan's under-19 cricket team became the mistaken target of an anti-migrant protest in the UK after false rumours about their arrival at a hotel prompted a crowd of protesters to gather outside.
Up to 40 people gathered outside the Marriott Hotel in Portsmouth on Tuesday evening (local time) after a coach carrying members of the cricket team was seen arriving.
A photograph of the team's arrival was posted online, prompting speculation they were asylum seekers.
Police were called to the hotel shortly after the team's arrival and spoke to people gathered outside who had voiced concerns about the group.
"The officers explained that their concerns were not correct," police said. "No offences were identified."
In a post shared to Facebook, local Reform councillor George Madgwick said hotel staff and the team's coach provided evidence confirming the guests staying were cricketers.
"Someone online saw a group of what looked like foreign nationals leaving the coach and put a photo of it online and that's where it spurred from," Madgwick told the BBC.
"It was mere speculation rather than based on truth or fact."
Madgwick denied claims that the reaction to the cricket team's arrival was racist, calling it "a grave error, a grave mistake".
"I think one person made the assumption and everybody else followed that assumption. It isn't a good reflection on our city," he wrote on Facebook.
The incident came just days after hundreds of anti-migrant protesters clashed with officers Portsmouth following the arrival of a boat carrying around 140 migrants.
Protesters blocked roads in an attempt to stop coaches carrying the migrants, with multiple police officers injured and vehicles damaged.
According to the BBC, the England and Wales Cricket Board checked on the wellbeing of the cricket team and were reviewing security arrangements for the remainder of their UK visit.
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