London: After an erroneous tweet by a BBC journalist implying the Queen's death triggered a flurry of speculations on the social media, the Buckingham Palace had to break its protocol and issue a statement to scotch the false death rumours.
The Palace clarifying that Queen Elizabeth II visited the King Edward VII's Hospital only for her annual medical checkup.
"I can confirm that the queen this morning attended her annual medical check-up at the King Edward VII's Hospital in London. This was a routine, pre-scheduled appointment,” a news agency quoted a palace representative, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The tweet was sent by a BBC Urdu journalist named Ahmen Khawaja, who was said to have overheard the BBC's regular rehearsals for royal deaths.
Mistaking the technical obituary for real, the BBC Urdu journalist tweeted, 'Queen Elizabrth has died [sic]':@BBCWorld" (as seen in various screengrabs on social media)
Before the death tweet, she had posted another tweet, "BREAKING: Queen Elizabeth is being treated at King Edward 7th Hospital in London. Statement due shortly: @BBCWorld.
The queen was coincidentally, having her routine annual medical check up at the same hospital - King Edward 7th Hospital – which the Palace later confirmed.
The Buckingham Palace generally does not issue statements on Queen's health, however the BBC journalist's tweet led to such a furore on the social media that the Palace had to come out with a statement.
The journalist, who is now facing a disciplinary action for raising a false alarm, later apologised saying that it was the outcome of “a silly prank”.
"False alarm: Have deleted previous tweets!," she tweeted.
The BBC has apologised for the incident, saying, "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 apologize for any offence”.
