A Mexican anti-poverty official has been fired after posting a comment on social media sites suggesting that poor people smell.

Mexico's anti-poverty agency said Carlos Talavera has been fired as director of outreach brigades in the western city of Uruapan after a Facebook posting of his was re-tweeted on social media sites.

The original comment appears to describe an event attended by poor people and reads roughly "truth is this smells impressively bad, poor things".

The social development department said that it "roundly condemns" Mr Talavera's comment.

Mr Talavera also apologised on his Facebook account, saying: "I accept my error."

About 47 million of Mexico's 112 million people live in poverty.

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