Liverpool Football Club is expected to take a tough line with tweeters who responded to the club's Rosh Hashanah greeting with a torrent of racist messages.

A source at the club told the JC that Liverpool was considering banning anyone convicted of sending the tweets from attending matches at its Anfield stadium.

The news comes after the club was crticised by the city's Jewish community for not initially condemning the racists.

The club had posted the new year greeting on its Twitter feed which is followed by 3.24 million people. It read: "Liverpool FC would like to wish all our Jewish supporters around the world a happy new year. #RoshHashanah."

The post prompted a flood of offensive replies, many referencing Hitler and calling for Jews to be gassed.

A few hours later the tweet was removed by the club, along with the replies, and replaced with a post stating that the club "believes in the practice of religious freedom - we seek a world in which we can send good wishes to supporters without hateful responses.

A Liverpool spokesperson said: "Due to a number of offensive comments that were attached to a tweet on the official LFC twitter account, the tweet and comments have since been removed from the account."

Leaders of the city's Jewish community called on the club to revoke season tickets of the tweeters and attacked it for issuing a "bland" call for racial harmony rather than a condemnation of the racists.

In a letter to the club, the Merseyside Jewish Representative Council said it had "a moral duty to condemn such attacks in unequivocal terms". Failure to do so would "brand LFC as a club that does not deal with racists appropriately".

The council has also complained to Merseyside police, who confirmed they were investigating.