A BBC reporter tweeted that “Queen Elizabrth [sic] has died” and all hell broke loose.
However, when NBC News alerted Buckingham Palace to the tweets, a spokesman said that the queen was not only alive but carrying out public engagements.
It is not clear exactly how the mistake happened but the U.K.’s publicly-funded broadcaster was staging an internal drill on Wednesday to examine its readiness for the queen’s death, a routine event staged by many news organizations.…
Khawaja later said that she had left her cellphone at home unattended. She tweeted: “Silly prank, Apologies for upsetting anyone!”
A BBC spokesperson said: “During a technical rehearsal for an obituary, tweets were mistakenly sent from the account of a BBC journalist … The tweets were swiftly deleted and we apologize for any offence.”
“Cellphone left at home unattended,” indeed!
