Hawaii False Alarm: Residents receive false missile alert

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A big scare for people in Hawaii, an emergency warning of an incoming missile. The message first prompted terror, and then outrage. CGTN's Toby Muse explains.

TOBY MUSE WASHINGTON "Hawaii residents awoke Saturday morning to a nightmare - an alert warning that a ballistic missile threat was heading towards the islands."

And ordering everyone to seek shelter immediately. Except it was a false alarm. The alert, which was sent around 8:10 Saturday morning local time, caused panic among those living on the Pacific islands.

"When we got the alarm, we actually terrified, we are on the 36th floor of our hotel, and we didn't know what to do, we were kind of frantic, we got our shoes on, we were about to come downstairs when the lobby told us to stay indoors, We're still nervous."

TOBY MUSE WASHINGTON "Questions are now being asked about exactly how such a mistake could have occurred. And why it took nearly 40 minutes for authorities to issue a correction."

Hawaii's governor has said the false alarm was caused by an employee pushing the wrong button. And the head of Hawaii's Emergency Management Agency has taken responsibility for the mix-up.

DAVID IGE GOVERNOR OF HAWAII "This should not have happened. We are investigating emergency management which allow this false alarm to be sent."

VERN MIYAGI, ADMINISTRATOR HAWAII EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY "We will take actions to prevent this from ever happening again by having more than one person to do this big decision or getting equipment changes. Let me finish investigation. It was also my fault."

TOBY MUSE WASHINGTON "The House of Representatives said it would open an investigation. So has the Federal Communications Commission."

The mistake comes amid high tension in the Pacific over a nuclear stand-off between the U.S. and the DPRK. Hawaii has already carried out practice drills for a possible attack. Analysts worry that it is precisely these types of confusions that can have horrendous consequences when tension is high.

President Donald Trump was golfing at the time but has since been briefed on the situation. In a statement the White House said: This was purely a state exercise.