THE NEW YORK Times has apologised after it accidentally sent an email to more than 8 million people this evening.

The email, which went to people who had shared their information with the company, told recipients that their home delivery of the newspaper had been cancelled.

People outside of America, including Ireland, received the email, which went to 8.6 million people.

The news company originally said that the mistake had been spam but later retracted and apologised for sending the mails.

“We regret that the error was made but no one’s security has been compromised,” said Eileen Murphy, a spokeswoman for the Times Company in a statement this evening.

Amy Chozick, a reporter for the paper, tweeted that the email was supposed to have gone to around 300 people – instead of the 8 .6 million who actually received it.

Chozick also confirmed that the sender of the email was a Times employee.

The message became a hot topic on Twitter within minutes of being sent out as tweeters questioned why they were receiving the mail.

The email, which was address to ‘Home Delivery Subscriber’  was aimed at people who had requested to cancel their home delivery subscription of the New York Times, and offered them a discount if they reconsidered the cancellation.

The company has sent out an email correcting the error in the past hour, saying that the original email “was sent by us in error”.