THE Sun has become aware of a BBM and Whatsapp tsunami alert which is currently circulating, purporting to be from or related to the South Coast Sun.
Several readers called the newspaper offices to advise of the message which is doing the rounds, and checking its veracity as it ends with the question ‘Do you read the South Coast Sun newspaper?’.
“We have not issued any alert advising of a possible tsunami, and distance ourselves from this irresponsible notification which seems to be causing some alarm,” said managing editor, Michellé Izatt. “We have this morning noticed increased traffic to a November 2014 article on our website which is headlined ‘Durban tsunami warning texts a hoax’, and assure readers that no tsunami alert has been issued.”
A portion of the message, which is believed to have been disseminated via Whatsapp and BBM, reads: “Hey everyone, this was just released from the south african national government of climates it’s been confirmed that approximately 18h00 gmt there going to be a magnitude of a TSUNAMI waves hitting the coastline of Durban followed by hitting the wild coast Port Shepstone stretching as far as port St Johns so everyone aroundthese areas please be on high alert waves are expected to be high has 9 meters high and stretching far out shore… (sic)”
“Readers would be well advised to disregard the entire contents of the fictitious message,” said Michellé.
