Goa Art and Culture Minister Dayanand Mandrekar has apologised for his remarks comparing Nigerians to cancer. He said he regretted the statement.

"I apologise 100 times and regret my mistake. I said what I felt, I did not mean to label the entire Nigerian community," he said.

On Sunday, Mandrekar said that Nigerians were like cancer. "We are worried what would be the image of Goa for the outside world when the images of Nigerians creating ruckus on the road are shown through television to the world."

Nearly 200 Nigerians had blocked the national highway last week to protest against the drug-related murder of a fellow national.

Many Nigerians had been arrested following the incident.

The minister said that such incidents are bound to have a bad repercussion on the tourism industry of the state.

Timely police action could have saved the highway from being blocked by the Nigerians, Mandrekar said.

"People have seen on the television how Nigerians forcibly dragged out the corpse from the police van while the policemen remained silent spectators," he said.

The minister also claimed that the drug menace in the state has crossed beyond the coastal belt and percolated to the villages.