Canadian rock star Bryan Adams has apologised for his racist rant after the COVID-19 pandemic forced him to cancel gigs that were planned in the current season. Adams had used slurs such as "bat eating", "wet market animal selling" and "virus making greedy b******ds".

The musician took to Instagram to apologise for his previous remarks, which attracted a lot of flak from netizens, reportsvvariety.com.

"Apologies to any and all that took offense to my posting yesterday," he wrote on Instagram, referring to his views where he blamed "some f***ing bat-eating, wet market animal-selling, virus-making greedy bastards" for the virus crisis all over the world.

"No excuse," Adams continued, adding: "I just wanted to have a rant about the horrible animal cruelty in these wet-markets being the possible source of the virus, and promote veganism. I have love for all people and my thoughts are with everyone dealing with this pandemic around the world."

Adams also added a performance of the song "Into the fire" to his post.

Earlier, Adams, 60, took to Instagram and Twitter to share his views along with a video of himself playing the 1983 hit track "Cuts like a knife".

He had captioned the clip: "'CUTS LIKE A KNIFE'. A song by me. Tonight was supposed to be the beginning of a tenancy of gigs at the @royalalberthall, but thanks to some f*******g bat eating, wet market animal selling, virus making greedy b******ds, the whole world is now on hold, not to mention the thousands that have suffered or died from this virus."

"My message to them other than "thanks a f******g lot" is go vegan," he added.

Soon after he had posted his view, Adams received criticism from a section of social media users.