The Huffington Post news and blogging site has launched an investigation into a reader who posted dozens of antisemitic comments online.

The move followed a complaint from a fellow reader who said the racist and xenophobic remarks had been allowed to remain on the site for “weeks”.

A US-based account called Vincent Vincent-James was used to submit hundreds of comments on news stories and British community forums on the site.

They included one in which he referred to a fellow user as “the rubbish, the Jewish rubbish”, and another which stated: “You filthy, hate-stirring Jewish pieces of faeces.”

When the JC alerted the Huffington Post to the abuse on Wednesday the comments were immediately removed and the user suspended.