TT star John McGuinness has called for criminals who slash motorcycle tyres to have their hands cut off.

He was tweeting about an incident in Morecambe where 15 French bikers who were returning from the TT and staying overnight had their tyres let down.

The Lancaster Guardian reported that one of the tyres had a knife left in it which punctured it and the rest of them had had the air let out.

‘Stuff like this wouldn’t happen if these types of criminals had their hands cut off!,’ tweeted McGuinness. ‘Job done, simple!

‘I’m embarrassed for Morecambe,’ he added.

A spokesman for Morecambe police said: ‘This was a one off act of vandalism targeting people coming back from the TT.

‘I suspect it was drinkers coming back from town, but it was a rather annoying and expensive prank.’

Mr McGuinness was responding to a tweet from Morecambe local Barry Marlow, who said: ‘On behalf of the majority of decent people in this area, I’m so very sorry.

‘I’ve just come back from the TT and the camaraderie between many different nations restored my faith in humanity a bit.

‘Then this. Utter Scumbags’.

Mr Marlow is hoping to find out who the French bikers were and organise a fundraiser to compensate them for the vandalism damage.