Mass panic in Georgia after TV station runs fake report about Russian tanks rolling into its capital

Mass panic in Georgia after TV station runs fake report about Russian tanks rolling into its capital. Panic gripped the former Soviet republic of Georgia after a TV broadcast that Russian tanks had invaded the capital and the president was dead.

Mobile phone networks were overwhelmed with calls and crowds rushed on to the streets.

For hundreds of thousands of Saturday night viewers, the 20-minute report on pro-government Imedi TV thrust the country, which became independent in 1991, back to its five-day war with Russia in August 2008.

A fake report claiming that Georgia had been invaded by Russian tanks brought back memories of the 2008 war between the two countries in South Ossetia

Old images from the 2008 battle were shown on television, causing Georgians to believe they were again at war

The report was intended to lay out a scenario in which opposition leaders had called on Russian forces now stationed in neighbouring South Ossetia to intervene in political unrest after mayoral elections in the capital Tbilisi, which are before June.

It was introduced as a simulation of 'the worst day in Georgian history', but the report then ran without a banner making clear to viewers tuning in late that it was not real.

Opposition politicians were scathing. 'Full responsibility for the report lie with the Georgian authorities, which have practically monopolised all television space to wage information terror on their own people,' the Alliance for Georgia said in a statement.

The Georgian Interior Ministry said the report caused 'great panic'.

The hoax report claimed president Mikheil Saakashvili had been killed

Witnesses reported seeing a cinema in Tbilisi emptied as frantic parents called their children home.

Russian Interfax news agency flashed the report on the 'alleged' but unconfirmed entry of Russian tanks and death of president Mikheil Saakashvili, and Moscow's Echo Moskvy radio station interrupted its regular programming with the 'news'.

The 2008 invasion was triggered after Georgian troops attacked pro-Russian separatists in the breakaway republic of South Ossetia.

Using archive pictures from the 2008 war, Imedi showed advancing Russian tanks.

Switching to a live talkshow, the anchor apologised for any panic the report had caused, saying: 'We just wanted to show what the worst day in Georgian history might look like.'

The report was a barely disguised swipe at opponents of Saakashvili who recently met Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Moscow and called for the countries to restore ties.

'It was indeed a very unpleasant programme, but the most unpleasant thing is that it is extremely close to what can happen and to what Georgia's enemy has conceived,' Mr Saakashvili said.

Georgy Arveladze, head of Georgia Media Production Holding which owns Imedi, said the aim was to show the 'real threat' of how events might unfold.

Dozens of angry Georgians converged on Imedi, where opposition politician Nino Burjanadze told reporters the stunt was 'disgusting'.

Imedi, originally an opposition broadcaster until police stormed the studios in 2007, apologised for how the report was shown. ( dailymail.co.uk )

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