A teen actor who plays a gay man on a popular British TV soap was attacked by two dunken thugs on a night out in Manchester at the weekend.

Danny Miller, who plays gay character Aaron Livesy on long-running drama Emmerdale, told his 12,500 fans on Twitter that he’d been targeted for his gay role.

“I was attacked by a couple of lads tonight but managed to escape unharmed,” he typed. “Just a couple of drunken lads took a few swings.

“Afraid to say it was Emmerdale related,” he added. “Not sure why though. Hadn’t seen them before ever.”

A report from the UK’s The People newspaper has an eye-witness report One of the attackers had shouted: “There’s that gay lad off the telly – let’s fucking get him!”

The actor, who is dating a female co-star, recently shared a kiss with a man for the show. See the clip below.