The mayor of a town in the US state of West Virginia has resigned after she was caught up in a controversy over racist comments about First Lady Michelle Obama.

Beverly Whaling had appeared to applaud a Facebook post referring to the first lady as an “ape in heels”.

She wrote that the post had made her day, but later said she was referring to the election outcome.

A petition calling for the mayor’s resignation had gathered over 170,000 signatures.

Whaling was the mayor of the town of Clay, which has a population of just 491.

The town has no African American residents, according to the 2010 census.

In Clay County as a whole, more than 98% of its 9,000 residents are white.

Whaling had responded to a Facebook post by Pamela Ramsey Taylor, a local resident who runs a non-profit group in Clay County, which referred to the first lady as an “ape”.

“It will be refreshing to have a classy, beautiful, dignified first lady in the White House. I’m tired of seeing a Ape in heels,” Taylor wrote, to which Whaling responded, “just made my day Pam”.

While Clay County has a small population, the furore over the Facebook post spread far and wide.

Taylor, the originator of the facebook post, had already been dismissed from her post.

Whaling had already issued a written apology to news media outlets saying that her comment wasn’t intended to be racist.

“I was referring to my day being made for change in the White House! I am truly sorry for any hard feeling this may have caused! Those who know me know that I’m not in any way racist!”

Donald Trump’s victory in the just concluded US election has been celebrated by mainly by white supremacists including the Ku Klux Khan, KKK, group.

There has also been an increase in incidents of racial and religious intolerance since the Republican candidate was declared winner of the election.

Trump in his first televised sit-down interview since becoming President-elect told his supporters to stop harassing minorities.

“I am so saddened to hear that,” Trump said when he was told that his supporters were harassing Latinos and Muslims.

“And I say, Stop it… I will say this, and I will say it right to the cameras, Stop it,” he said.

“I would say, don’t do it, that’s terrible, because I’m going to bring this country together,” he added.

The billionaire hotelier however said that the situation was being exaggerated by the media, adding that he has seen “a very small amount” including “one or two instances” of racial slurs being directed at minorities, particularly in largely white schools, since his election.

Richard Cohen, President of the Southern Poverty Law Canter told journalists on Monday that there have been more that 300 incidents that their organization has recorded.

“He (Trump) needs to take a little bit more responsibility for what’s happening,” Cohen said.