Scottish police revealed on Friday that they are investigating reports that Hibernian's on-loan Wolverhampton Wanderers striker Leigh Griffiths sent a racist tweet.

During a heated exchange on Twitter on Thursday evening, the 22-year-old Scotland international is alleged to have told a man: "fuck off back to your own country ya clown."

The comment was subsequently deleted.

A spokesman for Lothian and Borders Police said: "We have been made aware of this matter, and we are carrying out initial enquiries."

After his initial Twitter outburst, Griffiths returned to Twitter to apologise to the man mentioned in his tweet.

"Got to apologise to @zak-iqbal for my comment earlier, was out of order!"

On Friday morning, he also wrote: "I'm not a racist! Yes what I said was out of order! People going to give it a rest now?? Jesus Christ."

Griffiths has scored 14 goals since joining Hibs on loan from Wolves but is due to return to the English Championship club later this month.

A spokesman for Hibs said the club would be taking action against Griffiths over the matter.

"Hibernian FC today (Friday) confirmed that it had spoken to player Leigh Griffiths about exchanges on a social media website," he said.

"The player had realised that despite the provocation, the language he used was totally unacceptable and had already apologised for what he said. The player has closed access to the account.

"The player will be subject to a disciplinary process which will be a private matter between the club and the player."

A Wolves spokesman added: "Wolves are aware of an alleged racist comment made on Twitter last night by Leigh Griffiths.

"The club condemns such comments in the strongest possible terms and are extremely angry and disappointed."

Anti-racism group Show Racism the Red Card called for Griffiths' case to be handled as swiftly as possible.

"We wish to see a Scotland free of racism and must condemn all incidences of racism across social networking sites, in football and wider society," they said in a statement.