A student coronavirus-themed party offering cheap Corona beers and free face masks has been slammed as "tasteless".
The "Coronavirus Awareness Party" held for students in Sunderland at a nightclub in the city promised revellers £1 drinks, three rooms of music and bottles of vodka with unlimited mixer and a sparkler for £30.
A poster was also made for the event at Independent nightclub in the city centre featuring the Corona beer logo with "virus" placed underneath it in a similar font.
In red text it also claimed the night was an "awareness party" featuring "cheap Corona".
Similar adverts were put on Facebook for the night run by 21st Century Box.
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The event details read: "Free t-shirts/face masks/cheap Corona.
"Raising awareness of the coronavirus."
The party – scheduled to go ahead this Friday – has been blasted by politicians.
Leader of Sunderland City Council, Councillor Graeme Miller, branded the event "tasteless".
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He said: "It is not appropriate when the coronavirus is running rampant through China and spreading int other countries across the planet.
"It is in bad taste and it'll be hard for someone not to take offence at it who is suffering or knows someone suffering with coronavirus.
"The idea is tasteless and they shouldn't be doing it. I think someone has thought it was a clever thing to do.
"But it is in real poor taste. It is not what I would want to do in my bar. You would think they would have other ways to promote beer they are trying to sell."
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Sam Evans, a promoter of the event, told ChronicleLive that the event was "not meant to be distasteful".
Organisers now appear to have removed all references to coronavirus from the event on its Facebook page.
More than 2,000 people have now died from coronavirus worldwide, after the first cases were detected in the city of Wuhan, China, in December.
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At least 75,000 cases worldwide have been confirmed.
A total of nine cases have been confirmed in the UK, including two patients in Newcastle who are both Chinese nationals.
The pair, from the same family, were treated at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary.
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It has been revealed that eight out of the nine people who tested positive for the disease in the UK have now been discharged from hospital.
But the outbreak has led to many Chinese people in the UK and other people of East Asia origin reporting hostile behaviour towards them.
Many restaurants in London's Chinatown have also experienced lower sales since the start of the outbreak, with some up to 70% down on expected figures for this time of year.
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