Drama executives at the BBC have refused to let bosses at Casualty run a storyline involving a terrorist attack by Muslim suicide bombers.

The channel decided that the subject matter would cause too much offense and ordered the scriptwriters to change the Muslim characters to animal rights extremists instead.

It will be shown over two episodes, with the first being told through the eyes of new doctor Toby De Silva and the second re-telling the story from show veteran Charlie Fairhead's perspective.

Producers of the show could be left frustrated by the BBC's policy after Channel 4 recently gave the go-ahead for a new thriller about a suicide bomber in London's Canary Wharf.