A David Schwimmer lookalike suspected of theft has been arrested by the Lancashire police in Britain.

The Lancashire police said in a tweet on Tuesday (Nov 13) that following an appeal for information "for a man who resembles a well-known actor" and with the help of the Metropolitan police, a 36-year-old man was arrested in Southall, a suburban district in London, a day earlier.

Schwimmer is famed for playing Dr Ross Geller in the hit sitcom Friends.

The Lancashire police thanked the public and specially thanked Schwimmer for his support.

An appeal for information on the suspect was first put up on the Blackpool police's Facebook page, with a surveillance camera still of the man, who is the spitting image of Schwimmer, clutching a crate of beer.

Netizens flooded the post with thousands of comments, quoting famous lines and running gags related to Schwimmer's most beloved and well-known character to date, Ross from Friends.

The 52-year-old actor eventually weighed in, with a witty video of himself sneakily carrying a crate of beer in a grocery store.

He captioned the video: "Officers, I swear it wasn't me. As you can see, I was in New York. To the hardworking Blackpool police, good luck with the investigation."

The police shared his post on their page.

Subsequently, the police said that they had identified the suspect and thanked the outpouring of messages and support from the public in a tweet last month.

Mimicking the way another iconic Friends character, Chandler Bing, speaks, the tweet read: "Could we BE any more overwhelmed with the response to our CCTV appeal after a theft at a restaurant in Blackpool?"