A supermarket chain has withdrawn the plastic crosses it was selling for Halloween after a minister complained they were offensive to Christianity.

Asda has agreed to remove from sale the 97p gold plastic crosses from all its stores after the Rev Marcus Bull, Vicar of Trinity Church, Rawdon, complained.

The supermarket received a total of five complaints about the crosses, which were being sold as Halloween costume accessories.

A spokesman for the company said: "There was never any intention to cause any offence.

"The number of complaints we received was very small but we thought in this instance rather than leave them on sale and risk causing offence to other customers we would take them off. The crosses have been withdrawn from all stores and have not been on sale for a couple of days now."

As previously reported, Mr Bull had called on Asda to remove the crosses, saying they had "crossed the line" by selling cheap plastic versions of a sacred Christian symbol in order to celebrate a non-Christian festival.

He said he was "extremely offended that this most precious symbol of my faith has been turned into a cheap, tacky toy".

He said: "While witch costumes and grisly masks are one thing, I believe that a line has been crossed when a store sells cheap plastic versions of sacred Christian symbols for use in what is essentially the celebration of a pagan, certainly non-Christian, festival."

Asda originally refused to withdraw the crosses but later changed its mind.

Mr Bull said today: "This is absolutely fantastic. I am very pleased and delighted that Asda have listened to what we said. This is the best possible outcome. I'm just delighted they have seen sense."