Malaysia red-faced over mistaken tsunami warning

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 19 (Reuters) Malaysian authorities mistakenly issued a tsunami warning on Friday, and their embarrassment only deepened when beachgoers failed to receive it.

''It's a technical glitch. The system broke down and it issued an old warning to everyone including the media,'' said the science minister's press secretary, Ainon Mohd.

''We are asking the press to ignore the warning,'' she said.

But one local media group had already issued the warning twice via its nationwide text-message service. The warning came from the meteorological department, part of the science ministry.

But beachgoers on the resort island of Penang, hit by the devastating Asian tsunami in 2004, were blissfully unaware.

''We did not get any reports of a tsunami here. Our guests are not disturbed, they are enjoying themselves,'' said an executive at the Parkroyal hotel on Penang's famed Batu Ferringhi coast.

Today's warning said a strong earthquake in northern Sumatra could cause a tsunami in the northern states of Kedah, Perlis and Penang and warned people to stay off the beach.

The government set up its own tsunami alert system after the Asian tsunami on December 26, 2004, which killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries, including Malaysia.

A Pacific-wide tsunami drill held last May found glitches in the regional alert network, including a faulty fax machine in Malaysia.

REUTERS SSC HS1153