Fireman Sam episode showing character slipping on Qur'an is pulled by Channel 5

An episode of Fireman Sam which appeared to show a character slipping on a page from the Qur'an has been pulled from Channel 5's streaming site.

In the episode, a character is seen carrying a tray of hot drinks before slipping on some paper on the floor.

As several sheets of paper fly into the air, one appears to be covered with Arabic script, which viewers said was from the religious text.

HIT Entertainment, which produced the children's animation, apologised "unreservedly" to viewers and said it had cut ties with the animation studio, which it blamed for the mistake.

Miqdaad Versi, whose Twitter profile describes him as the assistant secretary general of the Muslim Council, tweeted: "Have no idea what went through the producers' minds when they thought this was a good idea."

A HIT Entertainment spokeswoman said: "It has been bought to our attention that in an episode of Fireman Sam (Series 9, Episode 7), an image of the Qur'an is briefly depicted.

"The page was intended to show illegible text and we deeply regret this error. We sincerely apologise for any distress or offence it may have caused.

"We will no longer be working with the animation studio responsible for this mistake. In addition, we are taking immediate action to remove this episode from circulation and we are reviewing our content production procedures to ensure this never happens again.

"Again, we apologise unreservedly to our viewers."

The programme first aired in October 2014 and was available to watch online. It was last shown on television on June 28.

On Tuesday the episode was pulled from Channel 5's online streaming platform and the broadcaster said it had no plans to show it on TV.