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Bayern 3, a radio station in Bavaria, Germany, has issued a statement after host Matthias Matuschik compared BTS to the coronavirus on-air.

You can’t accuse me of xenophobia only because this boy band is from South Korea ...

I have a car from South Korea.

In a response obtained by the AP, the radio station said Matuschik was "presenting his opinion in an ironic, exaggerated way and with exaggerated excitement, his words went too far and hurt the feelings of BTS fans.

"I am horrified to read the comments made by Matthias Matuschik," Halsey wrote in a note on her Instagram Stories Friday night (Feb. 26).

"Absolutely unacceptable the way radio host Matthias Matuschik speaks hate and racism in general let alone to my brothers," Steve Aoki tweeted Saturday (Feb. 27).

"Ewwww I just heard that clip of the radio presenter," Zara Larsson said on Twitter.

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