Update 25/5: Jason Manford's Twitter account has now returned.

Comedian Jason Manford appears to have deleted his Twitter account.

This follows the stand-up being attacked online for his comments supporting Ariana Grande following the Manchester Arena atrocity.

According to The Sun Manford tweeted Grande, saying: “you gave those kids the night of their lives, their hearts were full of joy & happiness & that was because of you. Remember that.”

But one person responded with: “Look at the body parts before you speak of joy Jason.” Another wrote: “I think they might wanna be alive at the end of the day." 

Manford responded by tweeting: “if you can’t say anything nice, shut the f*** up” and “people like this disgust me”. Later in the day his account @jasonmanford appeared to have disappeared.

He had already faced unwarranted online criticism earlier over his 40-minute Facebook Live footage following news of the tragedy breaking. Some said that Manford had done it to attract attention to himself and to get in the papers, even though anyone who watched the film could see that he was clearly genuinely emotional about the events unfolding and wanted to chat.

Manford is still active on Facebook but at the time of writing does not appear to have commented on his decision to axe his Twitter account.