Police Scotland have condemned abuse aimed at British number one tennis player after he revelaed his preference for a “Yes” vote for Scotland’s independence referendum in a tweet on Thursday.

Murray had tweeted ”Huge day for Scotland today! No campaign negativity [in the] last few days totally swayed my view on it. Excited to see the outcome. Let’s do this!”

The abuse, described as “vile, disgusting and distasteful” by Assistant Constable Bernard Higgins, involved reference to the Dunblane massacre in which a gunman killed 16 pupils and a teacher of Dunblane Primary School at a time the former Wimbledon champion was a pupil of the school.

Higgins stated “We are monitoring social media and where appropriate will take action against those involved,” adding that, “social media is important for many people but it must be used responsibly. There is no place for personal abuse of any kind on it.”

The referendum saw just over two million people vote ”No” on Thursday to Scotland independence from the United Kingdom, with 1.6million voting ”Yes”.