"Boy Who Cried Wolf": Anger In Seoul Over False N Korea Rocket Alert
NDTV
The alert, sent at 6:41 am local time to all mobile phones in Seoul, said: "Citizens, please prepare to evacuate and allow children and the elderly to evacuate first."
An emergency evacuation alert sent in error across Seoul over a North Korean rocket launch triggered widespread panic on Wednesday, crashing internet services and raising fears the government could not be trusted to handle a real crisis.
The alert, sent at 6:41 am local time to all mobile phones in Seoul, said: "Citizens, please prepare to evacuate and allow children and the elderly to evacuate first."
The message did not specify why residents should evacuate or explain where they should go -- Seoul has long had a network of underground bomb shelters, but they have not been used in emergencies in living memory.
Naver, South Korea's largest internet portal, told AFP its network went down for around five minutes due to the excess traffic sparked by the alert.
