ANKARA (AA) - The BBC has suspended Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson after having an altercation with a producer, the broadcaster announced Tuesday.
It also confirmed that Sunday's episode of the popular TV series would not be shown, with the fate of the remaining two shows unclear.
According to the BBC, the host allegedly punched one of the producers of the show.
On Wednesday, an online petition calling on the BBC to return the host to the show had been signed by over 380,000 people.
Clarkson has been silent about the suspension, except for exchanging tweets with his other two co-hosts of the show over which movies might be shown on Sunday in lieu of the program.
On Wednesday, his daughter tweeted: "Oh God, BBC please take him back... He's started cooking..."
Clarkson, who has presented Top Gear since 2002, has been embroiled in controversy on a number of occasions in the past as well.
He was given a "final warning" by the BBC last May after he reportedly used a racist slur in a broadcast footage leaked to the Daily Mirror.
In it, Clarkson is heard singing an allegedly tweaked version of the nursery rhyme "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe." He later apologized for the incident in a video statement. But it was followed by another one in October in Argentina, where the Top Gear crew had to stop filming after angry protests erupted over a number plate that seemed to refer to the Falklands War between the South American country and the U.K. in 1982.
