An Emmerdale actor has been fired from the programme over historical offensive tweets, ITV has confirmed. Shila Iqbal, who played Aiesha Richards, had only been made a series regular at the end of March.

On Thursday, as news of her sacking was reported, Iqbal apologised for the tweets, which it is understood were posted in 2013 when she was 18 or 19 and studying at college in Rochdale.

A spokeswoman for the soap said: “As a consequence of [historical] social media posts, Shila Iqbal has left her role as Aiesha Richards on Emmerdale. The programme took the decision not to renew her contract as soon as these posts were brought to the company’s attention.”

Iqbal, who has also appeared in Lala’s Ladiez, Citizen Khan and the film Eaten by Lions, has since deleted her Twitter account. “I am terribly sorry and take full responsibility for my use of such inappropriate language. I have paid the price and can no longer continue the job I loved the most at Emmerdale,” she said.

“Although I was young when I made the tweets, it was still completely wrong of me to do so and I sincerely apologise.”

Iqbal added: “The only consideration I would ask is that I have recently received hateful tweets telling me that as a Muslim my Emmerdale role means that I am ‘committing sinful acts, promoting sin and deliberately going against the Qu’ran’.

“We live in sensitive times for members of all communities and especially those in multiracial Rochdale, where I grew up. I regret that I too have let people down by the use of such language, albeit six years ago.

“I, like everyone else, have a responsibility about the language I have used on social media as well as in conversation.”

The content of the tweets has not been revealed but Mail Online quoted an unnamed source at the programme as saying: “Shila Iqbal was summarily fired yesterday by ITV bosses over a series of racist tweets posted a few years on her Twitter ... She was making repeated use of the N-word. Straight out of the door.”