A SCOT employed at a Kyrgyzstan gold mine has been arrested and faces up to five years in prison for a Facebook post that compared a local dish with a horse’s penis.

The comment written by Michael Mcfeat, of Abernethy in Perthshire, sparked a lightning strike at the mine, according to a Krygyzstan Government spokesperson yesterday.

Mcfeat joked that his co-workers were lining up for their “special delicacy, the horse’s penis” during festive celebrations. It is thought that Mcfeat, a welding supervisor with Toronto-based Centerra Gold who own the mine, was referring to chuchuk, a traditional horse sausage.

Under the country’s laws he may be charged with racial hatred which carries a sentence of between three and five years in jail.

After his arrest and the deletion of the post the strike was called off yesterday.

A spokesman for the UK foreign office said: “We are providing consular assistance to a British national who was arrested in Kyrgyzstan.”

Mcfeat has now apologised on his page, writing that no offence was intended. “I would like to take the opportunity to sincerely appologise for the comment I made on here about the kygyz people and horses penis. I truly never meant to offened anyone and im truly sorry as it was never my intension. I would also like to say the people in the picture had absolutely nothing to do with it. again im very very sorry.” (sic).

His Facebook friends who saw the apology but with the offending post deleted were confused over what the fuss was about. “Can’t believe I have had only three hours sleep and still appear to have missed one of Mick’s epic status’s,” said one, while his partner, Amanda, wrote: “Someone’s got his phone – the spelling’s too good for him!”

The mine is responsible for up to 10 per cent of the country’s economic output and the government is currently at loggerheads over ownership with Centerra.

The Kyrgyz Government wants to swap its 32.7 per cent stake in Centerra to shared ownership of the gold mine.