BBC Urdu reporter tweets ‘false alarm’ on Queen Elizabeth during obituary rehearsal

London, June 3: In a major blunder, a BBC Urdu reporter Ahmen Khawaja on Wednesday, June 3, tweeted a 'false alarm' related to 89-year-old Queen Elizabeth's health during obituary rehearsal.

Following the rogue tweet controversy, Buckingham Palace was forced to deny Queen is unwell.

Co-incidentally, at the time of hoax tweet, Queen was at the King Edward VII's hospital in London, for her annual "routine" and "pre-scheduled" medical check-up.

31-year-old Khawaja had earlier tweeted, "BREAKING: Queen Elizabeth is being treated at King Edward 7th Hospital in London. Statement due shortly: @BBCWorld."

She also removed the offending tweet, claiming "she had been hacked after leaving her phone at home."

Later, Ahmen Khawaja deleted the previous "silly prank" tweet and clarified in a fresh tweet saying, "False Alarm: Have deleted previous tweets!!"

Before she could realise that the tweet was misleading, it had been re-tweeted several times by her followers.

False Alarm: Have deleted previous tweets!!

— Ahmen Khawaja (@AhmenKhawaja) June 3, 2015

A BBC spokesperson said, "During a technical rehearsal for an obituary, tweets were mistakenly sent from the account of a BBC journalist saying that a member of the royal family had been taken ill. the tweets were swiftly deleted and we apologise for an offense. The tweets were swiftly deleted and we apologise for any offence."

After reading the BBC reporter's erroneous tweet, US news channel CNN and German newspaper Bild also tweeted the same.

According to The Guardian, one BBC insider was quoted saying as: "It's no secret that big media organisations carry out rehearsals for how they would cover the death of a major public figure. But the important thing is you don't tell anyone you're doing it."

Affiliates, please disregard our previous tweet about Queen Elizabeth. It was sent in error.

— CNN Newsource (@CNNNewsource) June 3, 2015

+++EILMELDUNG+++ Die Queen liegt im Krankenhaus. Gleich mehr auf BILD.de pic.twitter.com/8iUQgLqk9I

— BILD (@BILD) June 3, 2015

Queen nicht im Krankenhaus. Buckingham Palast gibt bekannt, dass die Nachricht falsch ist.

— BILD (@BILD) June 3, 2015

READ: BBC statement on journalist's erroneous tweets: pic.twitter.com/a0kJxfp68r

— BBC News Press Team (@BBCNewsPR) June 3, 2015

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