Civil Defence NZ retracts potential tsunami warning issued by mistake on Twitter

March 14, 2019

Civil Defence NZ issued a potential tsunami warning by mistake on Twitter this afternoon.

The tweet, which was quickly deleted, said there had been a 6.6 magnitude earthquake just south of the Kermadec Islands.

It also stated that Civil Defence was monitoring any tsunami risk to New Zealand from the quake.

After deleting the tweet they then posted a follow up explaining the erroneous message.

"The tweet we have deleted related to an old earthquake notification. There is no current event. We apologise for any confusion."

A red alert text and voice message was also sent to members of the media signed up to the service.

Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management (MCDEM) communications manager Anthony Frith told the NZ Herald they are now looking into the error.

"A notification of an old earthquake was issued - that is, the system duplicated and issued an old message. We are looking into what caused this."

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