The actor George Clooney and his father Nick have been released from a Washington police station after being arrested outside the Sudanese Embassy on Friday.

Speaking outside the station, the actor explained that they wanted to draw attention to the humanitarian crisis in Sudan.

"There are people dying every day there ... Best estimates is tens of thousands of people are going to die from starvation that is man made. This isn't a famine, this is a man made tragedy by the government of Khartoum to get these people to leave. It's immediate I think."

On a lighter note, a reporter then asked if he had been treated well, to which the actor jokingly responded: "It was really rough, you can imagine. Have you ever been in a cell with these guys?!"

He added: "It is on my permanant record and you know that's picture's going to be all over everything."

Asked by one reporter what his girlfriend Stacey Keibler would make of his arrest, the star got a big laugh when he answered: "Can you imagine? Me getting arrested. Probably thrilled."