Police question Rooney over spitting allegation

England footballer Wayne Rooney has been questioned by London police after allegedly spitting at a paparazzi photographer outside a restaurant.

The 22-year-old Manchester United striker was interviewed under caution following the alleged incident on Tuesday, which occurred off the British capital's main Oxford Street shopping thoroughfare.

“We received a third party allegation at 12:09am on Wednesday that a photographer had been spat at by an individual outside a restaurant in Hanway Street,” a spokesman for London's Metropolitan Police force told AFP on Friday.

“Officers established the incident had occurred at around 10:20pm on Tuesday.

“The alleged suspect, a 22-year-old male, was spoken to by police.

“He was not arrested and did not attend a police station. Inquiries continue.”

Deliberately spitting at someone is an offence of common assault.

A file will eventually be passed to the Crown Prosecution Service, which oversees prosecutions in England and Wales, for them to consider whether to bring charges.

Rooney married his fiancee Coleen McLoughlin in a fairytale villa on the Italian Riviera on June 12.

They have been together since at least 2003, when they were 17.