CUSTOMERS were left shocked and upset after a woman made racist comments in a Cirencester town centre cafe.

The woman was heard complaining to staff about being served “foreign coffee from a foreign barista,” referring to a drink bought elsewhere.

A witness said the woman appeared angry about being being given a coffee made the “immigrant way.”

Elizabeth Evenden-Kenyon, a research fellow from the University of Oxford, was among those to witness the incident and was horrified by what she heard.

“I joined the queue and the woman in front of me was angry and wouldn’t stop talking, even though she had her drink,” she said.

“She said that she was once made a coffee the immigrant way and that immigrants are everywhere and we’re damned if we give them any money.

“She knew that I was listening and felt the need to empower racist comments and ended her rant by thanking the barista for making her coffee the ‘proper way’.”

She added that it wasn’t the first time she had overheard such racially insensitive comments in the town.

“I’ve seen it a lot. I’ve heard it in pubs and coffee shops so I’ve stopped going to the places where I’ve heard it. Comments like ‘get rid of these immigrants’.

“I think it’s definitely got a lot worse since Brexit. There’s so much hate out there when it’s so much easier to be nice.”

Staff at the cafe did not wish to comment.

There was a steep rise in hate crimes in the Cotswolds in 2015/16 following the Brexit vote, with a record 21 incidents recorded.

The most common type of hate crime in the Cotswolds was race-related, with 12 in 2015/16.

Last September, police investigated a vicious racially aggravated assault on a Kenyan man in Cirencester.

A 20-year-old white Kenyan man from Cirencester, who was on a night out, was assaulted near the town centre Tesco supermarket in Farrell Close.

Police said the attacker insulted the man, who had a ‘distinctive accent’, calling him ‘colonial’ and shouting that he must have Ebola. He then grabbed his victim by the hair and swung him against the window of a vacant shop.

At the time the police said they believed it was the man’s accent that prompted the abuse and classified the incident as a hate crime and assault that is racially aggravated.