Liam Neeson has sparked outrage by revealing how he once stalked the streets armed with a cosh hoping to murder a black man.

The Northern Irish actor, 66, said he was 'ashamed' by his 'awful' behaviour, which happened many years ago after a close friend was raped.

His shocking story provoked a huge backlash on social media, with many accusing Neeson – who has previously spoken passionately in support of women's pay equality and gay marriage in Northern Ireland – of racism.

He made the astonishing admission as he discussed his latest film, Cold Pursuit – about a father's quest for revenge against a drug baron after his son is killed.

When the unnamed rape victim told Neeson her attacker was black, he wandered the streets looking for a black man to kill, he said.

"My immediate reaction was... I asked, did she know who it was? No. What colour were they? She said it was a black person.

"I went up and down areas with a cosh, hoping I'd be approached by somebody – I'm ashamed to say that – and I did it for maybe a week, hoping some [making air quotes with his fingers] "black b******" would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could kill him."

Neeson's revelation, and the language he used, provoked an immediate response on social media, with many accusing him of racism for demanding to know the ethnicity of his friend's attacker.

His use of racist language, even to describe his extreme emotions in the heat of the moment, was described as 'disgusting' by one Twitter user.

Another said: 'It reinforces the idea that people of colour, and especially black men, are collectively responsible for the misdeeds of one.'

Radio 1 presenter Clara Amfo said she was 'thinking about what broadcaster/host Liam Neeson is gonna use to try to exonerate himself from that "admission" of his'.

Irish novelist Marian Keyes posted: 'I am mortified by Liam Neeson.'

Hollyoaks actress Annie Wallace wrote: 'Liam Neeson... DAMN! What's wrong with people these days... not just the horrible thoughts and deeds, but saying things out loud, in a career-ending kinda way.'

Frederick Joseph, who launched a GoFundMe appeal to help take underprivileged children from Harlem in New York to see the Oscar-nominated superhero film Black Panther, tweeted: 'Liam Neeson being ready to take any Black life over what one person allegedly did just shows how meaningless and inconsequential black lives are to some.

'Even him telling the story demonstrates a level of privilege and understating that there may not be repercussions.'