The director of the British Museum, Hartwig Fischer, has announced he is stepping down with immediate effect following alleged thefts of artefacts from the institution.

The museum had earlier sacked a senior curator after close to 2,000 artefacts, worth millions of pounds, were believed to have been stolen.

Mr Fischer said it was “evident that the British Museum did not respond as comprehensively as it should have” in response to “warnings in 2021” about a problem that has now “fully emerged”.

“The responsibility for that failure must ultimately rest with the director,” he said.

Mr Fischer will be stepping down once an “interim leadership arrangement” has been established.