A report that appeared early on Wednesday morning claiming that Queen Elizabeth,89, had passed away after being admitted to King Edward VII Hospital in London, has been established as a hoax.
The report of the death of the Queen was first reported by BBC journalist Ahmen Khawaja. Soon CNN also picked up the story.
However, BBC journalist Ahmen Khawaja later tweeted @AhmenKhawaja that the report was "false" as somebody had hacked her unattended phone and sent out the fake tweet, announcing the death of Queen Elizabeth.
The report even fooled the Geman daily BIld, which carried the report, but later took it off after it emerged that the claim was false.
It is has now emerged that the tweet was sent out from BBC during a royal death rehearsal.
The Telegraph reported that BBC's head of newsgathering, Jonathan Munro, had told staff to keep the fact of the rehearsal off social media. However, somebody used BBC journalist Ahmen Khawaja to send out the false report.
BBC confirming that the tweet was sent out by mistake issued a statement apologising for offending anyone.
"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 any offence," BBC News Press Team said in the statement.
Queen Elizabeth coronation anniversary
On Tuesday (2 June), Queen Elizabeth participated in several public programmes held to mark the 62 years of her coronation as the Queen of England.
Her coronation anniversary at Westminster Abbey was reportedly marked with gun salutes in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The UK's second-longest serving monarch was crowned on 2 June, 1953, at the age of 27.
Twitter Reactions
Nicholas Augusta @naugusta
Nicholas Augusta retweeted Ahmen Khawaja
Twitter hoax that Queen Elizabeth II has died apparently came from a BBC reporter whose phone was hacked.
Breaking News @NewsOnTheMin
Buckingham Palace says Queen Elizabeth is not in hospital, following an erroneous BBC journalist tweet - @AlexSmithNBC
Azeem Dada @azeemdada
Queen Elizabeth is hospitalized. Not seeing much on Twitter at the moment bar CNN. Age 89. yesterday 62nd anniversary of her coronation
Krittivas Mukherjee @Krittivasm
BREAKING: #Queen Elizabeth is being treated at King Edward 7th Hospital in #London. Statement due shortly.
Saeed Ahmed @saeed_ahmed
Queen Elizabeth is NOT being treated at a hospital. Her office said the alert sent out by another outlet was false
Jon Passantino @passantino
CNN just tweeted, then deleted report Queen Elizabeth has been hospitalized
BILD Royal @BILDroyal
#Queen Elizabeth II. hospitalised. Details to follow on http://www.bild.de
Charlie Lindlar @charlielindlar
"Queen Elizabeth is dead!"
Jessica Elgot @jessicaelgot
Rumours of Queen Elizabeth's hospitalisation have been greatly exaggerated
