False rocket alert in South Korea causes widespread panic in capital Seoul
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Seoul: For a large number of residents in South Korean capital of Seoul Wednesday morning was a day of chaos and confusion.
An alert message received at 6.41 am local time on all mobile phones asked residents to prepare to evacuate as though an airstrike was imminent.
‘Citizens, please prepare to evacuate and allow children and the elderly to evacuate first,’ news agency AFP quoted the message.
In no seconds, people began making frantic calls and were taking to internet crashing services.
Confusion peaked as the message did not specify why residents had to evacuate and where they would go.
The report said that the network of underground bomb shelters in Seoul have not been used in living memory.
South Korea’s largest internet portal Naver said that its network was overwhelmed in five minutes from heavy traffic.
Around 20 minutes after the alert was being sent, the government retracted the message, explaining that it was an error.
The second alert said that the alarm sent at ‘0641 was incorrectly issued’, sparking an avalanche of criticism of the authorities.
Anger and frustration poured out amid calls on social media for Mayor Oh Se-hoon to step down.
The alert was reportedly sent out erroneously after a military spy satellite, launched by rival North Korea, crashed into the sea.
The rocket carrying the satellite reportedly flew over the west of peninsula not Seoul metro area and the confusion must have triggered the alert, as per the report.