BREWERY chain Greene King has apologised after one of its Bournemouth pubs sparked a catalogue of complaints over an advertised 'Mental Asylum' Halloween Weekend.

The Broadway Pub, Castle Lane West, first advertised the event last week, which boasted free shots for participants including 'deranged doctors & nurses' and 'mental patients'.

But the Halloween event sparked outrage online, with many taking to social media to criticise its depiction of people with mental health issues.

Psychiatrist Dr Rory Conn contacted the Daily Echo and said: "This is a disgraceful example of how mental illness is portrayed and exploited. Examples such as this do untold damage to society as they demonise those who are mentally ill and prevent people from seeking appropriate help."

When the Echo spoke to pub manager Jay Cutler, who has since ordered the removal of all the offending posters, he was quick to apologise for any offence caused.

"At the end of the day we are not out to upset anybody and we have taken all the posters down,” he said.

"As of 8am this morning all the posters were taken down, we are sorry if these posters upset anybody, it was just a Halloween theme that all of the staff came up with.

"The posters have been up for a week, this is the first we've heard of any problems and we acted straight away. We took all of them down and will now come up with a new theme."

Meanwhile, Greene King bosses, who also issued a quick apology, have promised extra training with the Broadway team to ensure nothing like this can happen again.

A Greene King spokesman said: "We apologise for any offence caused by the poster at the Broadway pub. This was not part of a wider Greene King initiative and was removed as soon as it was brought to our attention.

"It should never have appeared and we will be working with the team on additional training to make sure this cannot happen again.

"We would like to reiterate that Greene King takes diversity extremely seriously across the business and our pubs and restaurants offer a welcome to all."