Asda 'deeply sorry' for selling 'mental patient' fancy dress costume

Supermarket giant Asda has been forced to apologise for advertising a fancy dress outfit featuring someone covered in blood and brandishing a machete as a "mental patient fancy dress costume".

The Halloween costume, which is designed to look like a blood-splattered straitjacket with ragged edges, was on sale for £20 through the supermarket's clothing arm George.

Read: Tesco apologise for 'Psycho Ward' costume

Many took to Twitter to express their disgust at the description including former footballer Stan Collymore, who has a well-documented battle with depression.

He tweeted: "Dear ASDA, nice stereotype of " Mental patients". Something you'd expect from the ###. A f###ing joke."

Read: Charity hopes outcry will make other retailers withdraw the 'mental patient' outfit

He added:

Former spin doctor Alastair Campbell, who has also suffered from the illness, wrote on the microblogging site:

Katie Dalton of Welsh mental health charity Gofal also wrote on Twitter:

No one from Asda was immediately available for comment but, in response to a barrage of tweets, the store's official account apologised and promised to make a donation to a mental health charity: