Controversial Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has been suspended by the BBC following a fight with a producer on the motoring show.

The broadcaster said the 54-year-old had been removed “following a fracas with a BBC producer” and an investigation would take place.

“No-one else has been suspended,” the BBC said in a statement.

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The program, which is watched by 350 million people worldwide each week, will not be broadcast this Sunday.

The 54-year-old was already on what he called his “final warning” after making racist remarks while filming several years ago.

The cast of BBC’s Top Gear.

“I’ve been told by the BBC that if I make one more offensive, remark, anywhere, at any time, I will be sacked,” Clarkson wrote in The Sun newspaper last May.

Former Top Gear presenter Chris Goffey told BBC Radio discussions on the show were often heated, but never bad enough to warrant an immediate suspension.

“It must have been something fairly serious behind the scenes to warrant his immediate suspension,” Goffey said.

When you’ve got a very strong character who likes things his own way, if somebody stands up to him, there’s going to be a row.”

The show is known for courting controversy, most recently in Argentina when the crew were forced to abandon filming after locals began pelting them with rocks over a registration plate they believed referred to the Falklands War.

The show was also forced to apologise in 2011 after Clarkson and his co-hosts Richard Hammond and James May referred to Mexicans as “lazy” and “feckless”.

The news of Clarkson’s suspension comes after a cryptic tweet last month in which he said Top Gear was looking for a new presenter.

Wanted: new presenter for Top Gear. Applicant should be old, badly dressed and pedantic but capable of getting to work on time.

— Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) February 25, 2015