Fashion designer John Galliano is to be prosecuted over his allegedly racist comments in a Paris café.

A spokesman for the Paris Prosecutor's Office said the designer would face trial later this year, after he was caught on video professing his love for Adolf Hitler and making anti-Jewish slurs at female tourists.

The British couturier, who has been sacked from his role as chief designer for Christian Dior, said in a statement today that he denied the claims but that he fully accepted the comments had “greatly shocked and upset people”.

Mr Galliano, who is understood to be seeking treatment at a rehabilitation clinic in Arizona, added: “I only have myself to blame and I know that I must face up to my own failures.”