A woman whose racist rant against two Asian women sparked outrage has apologised, claiming her drinks had been spiked.

Adele Mortimer, 54, has told the M.E.N. she was shocked when she viewed footage we published of her angrily berating two women on a tram at 7.30am on Wednesday.

The clip shows ticketless Adele railing against one of the women in particular who identified herself as a university lecturer.

“I don’t want no foreign nurses looking after me,” Adele says in the video.

Unemployed Adele, a mother-of-four from Ordsall, told the M.E.N: “I’m not a racist. I’m absolutely ashamed. It’s not me. It’s definitely not me.

"I hadn’t been out for a long time. I was out with a friend and we ended up in the Gay Village. My drinks must have been spiked in the Gay Village. I wasn’t myself after that.”

Asked if she would apologise to the two women she abused on the tram, she said: “I’m absolutely devastated. I would absolutely say I’m very sorry.

Watch: Racist abuse on the Metrolink

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"I even said I was sorry on the tram. It’s not me. It’s not my character. It was very out of character for me. I wasn’t myself.

“I’m embarassed. It’s not my character.”

Her friend Warren Hennis, 52, from Higher Broughton, said: “I have known her 15 or 20 years and that’s not Adele Mortimer.

"People make her out to be some evil person and she’s not. I can vouch for that one hundred per cent.

“When I was in intensive care with cancer she was there virtually every day. She’s the dearest friend I could possibly have. She’s really looked after me over the years.”

Adele, who has recently lost a job working at a shop in Salford precinct, said she was ‘shocked’ that her daughter-in-law Natalie Hulmes had spoken out by saying she was ‘mortified’ by the clip .

Natalie said that Adele had not spoken to her family for five years and had not spoken to their son or two other grandchildren.

Adele said: “I’m shocked about my daughter-in-law raving about this. Why would she do that to me?

"I’m a good mother. Why would she do that to me? At the end of the day I’m not a racist, never have been. There’s no way. I wasn’t myself at the time.”

More than 4,300 readers have posted messages about the clip on the M.E.N’s Facebook page, the vast majority criticising the woman’s behaviour .