Clarkson suspended

An online petition calling for the BBC to "reinstate" Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has been signed by more than 300,000 people.

Clarkson, 54, was suspended after a "fracas" with a BBC producer thought to work on the show.

Sunday's episode of Top Gear will not be shown, and it is understood the two final episodes in the series will also be dropped.

The petition was started on Tuesday by political blogger Guido Fawkes.

It reached the 250,000 mark by mid-morning on Wednesday.

At around the same time, Clarkson's retweeted a message to his 4.5m Twitter followers from a Top Gear viewer which read: "How can BBC not show the remaining episodes of Top Gear, can't this be resolved without making the fans suffer?"