Englishman cops abuse from Chinese fans after being mistaken for Mack Horton

An IT worker from the UK has received thousands of abusive tweets from people mistaking him for Australian gold medallist Mack Horton.

Mark Horton, no relation to Mack, says his Twitter account has been bombarded with angry messages demanding him to apologise for remarks the Olympian made about Chinese swimmer Sun Yang’s drug use. Mr Horton told the Watford Observer he woke up on Sunday morning to thousands of people calling on him to apologise. "It is obviously a mistake, it's a bonkers case of mistaken identity,” he told the paper. "I have been on Twitter for 10 years and nothing like this has happened before. My phone hasn't stopped all day. "It feels weird. It is like I am a celebrity in some way but people have no idea who I am,” Mark Horton tweeted. Despite Mr Horton denying claims he Mack Horton, some Twitter users have decided not to believe him, calling him a liar and a coward. Others have been quick to admit their mistake. "The funniest thing now is I am getting hundreds of tweets from Chinese people apologising for the mistake. Last time I looked I had 200,000 mentions in 36 hours." Mr Horton said he had decided to switch off notifications on his phone until the outrage calms down.