A Turkish t-shirt maker has apologised for putting children’s sweatshirts featuring Nazi insignia on sale across the country.

The long-sleeved top, featuring a black swastika within the Reichsadler (“Imperial Eagle”), the standard used by Nazi Germany, appeared on Tuesday morning on several auction websites worn by a child model.

It was available on GittiGidiyor.com, which is owned by eBay, and Trendyol, majority-owned by the Alibaba Group, at a price of 49.80 Turkish lira (£6.40).

The item was distributed by Tshirthane, a company based in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep, southern Turkey, which allows designers to market their products online.

The company removed the sweatshirt from sale later on Tuesday, but there was anger among Turkish social media users at the use of the Nazi insignia and the stock image of a child model to market it.

One person wrote on Twitter: “So you designed it, but then you used this happy-faced youngster?”

Another added: “Is there or is there not any respect for the Holocaust in this country? Whose mindset is it to take a period condemned by the world into a product and try to trade on it?”

In a statement, Tshirthane said: “We are upset to have come to prominence with a racist, fascist Nazi printed sweatshirt.

“Our products are designed by freelance designers who operate independently of us. Tshirthane must, of course, check these designs.

“Unfortunately, this one was missed among thousands of other designs. The product was removed from sale from all e-commerce platforms as soon as it was noticed.”

Aykan Erdemir, a former Turkish MP, said he looked forward to retailers implementing “new policies that will prevent this vendor & others from profiting from antisemitism [and] other forms of hate.”