Soccer-Carragher suspended by Sky after spitting at girl

* Sky Sports condemns Carragher's actions

* Pundit also dropped by Danish broadcaster

* Spitting incident took place on Saturday (Shenzhen: 002291.SZ - news) (Adds Sky Sports statement, details)

LONDON, March 12 (Reuters) - Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher has been suspended from his role as a Sky Sports pundit after video footage emerged of him spitting towards a girl in a car, the television company said on Monday.

Carragher has apologised for the incident, which took place after Liverpool lost 2-1 to Manchester United (NYSE: MANU - news) on Saturday, calling it "a moment of madness".

The 40-year-old former England international was summoned for talks with Sky Sports who had earlier described his actions as "unacceptable".

"Sky (Frankfurt: 893517 - news) takes this matter extremely seriously and strongly condemns Jamie's actions," Sky Sports said in a statement. "We've made that clear to him in person and suspended him from his duties. It falls well below the standards we expect of our people."

Danish broadcaster TV3 has also dropped Carragher from their coverage of Manchester United's Champions League tie against Sevilla on Tuesday.

"Jamie should have been to Old Trafford for us tomorrow night," TV3's head of sport Peter Norrelund told Danish media. "We have taken him off. It would have been like sending him into the lion's den.

"I've watched the video, and it does not look very nice,"

Carragher was driving home after summarising on Manchester United's win over Liverpool at Old Trafford when he apparently became involved in a conversation with the occupants of an adjacent car.

A video taken from the car, released on the website of several British newspapers, clearly shows Carragher spitting.

In the video the father of the girl can be heard shouting: "Unlucky Jamie lad. Two, one".

"Totally (LSE: 138370.L - news) out of order and I've apologised personally to all the family this evening," Carragher said on Twitter (Frankfurt: A1W6XZ - news) .

"I was goaded 3/4 times along the motorway while being filmed and lost my rag. No excuses, apologies."

Carragher, who joined Sky Sports after retiring as a player in 2013, has become a popular pundit working regularly alongside former United (Shenzhen: 000925.SZ - news) defender Gary Neville. (Reporting by Martyn Herman and Simon Jennings, editing by Ed Osmond and Christian Radnedge)