A Japanese broadcaster has issued a false North Korea ballistic missile alarm just days after a phone alert warning of a possible strike caused panic across Hawaii.
The NHK network sent out the warning today but corrected the error within minutes, it claimed.
It was not immediately clear what caused the false alarm which comes amid heightened tensions between Tokyo and Pyongyang.
The alert comes just days after a blunder caused more than a million people in Hawaii to fear that they were about to be struck by a nuclear missile.
A Japanese broadcaster has issued a false North Korea ballistic missile alarm just days after a phone alert warning of a possible strike caused panic across Hawaii. Pictured: A Japanese defence system on the outskirts of Tokyo
Residents and tourists alike were left terrified after the mistaken alert was blasted out to cellphones across the islands on Saturday with a warning to seek immediate shelter and the ominous statement ‘This is not a drill.’
The erroneous warning was sent during a shift change at the state’s Emergency Management Agency when someone doing a routine test hit the live alert button, state officials said.
They tried to assure residents there would be no repeat false alarms. The agency changed protocols to require that two people send an alert and made it easier to cancel a false alarm – a process that took nearly 40 minutes.
The error sparked a doomsday panic across the islands known as a laid-back paradise.
Parents clutched their children, huddled in bathtubs and said prayers. Students bolted across the University of Hawaii campus to take cover in buildings.
Drivers abandoned cars on a highway and took shelter in a tunnel. Others resigned themselves to a fate they could not control and simply waited for the attack.
The 911 system for the island of Oahu was overwhelmed with more than 5,000 calls. There were no major emergencies during the false alarm, Mayor Kirk Caldwell said.
An investigation into what went wrong is underway at the Federal Communications Commission, which sets rules for wireless emergency alerts sent by local, state or federal officials to warn of the threat of hurricanes, wildfires, flash flooding and to announce searches for missing children.