False quake warning sent to cellphones

Cellphone users with early-warning software for earthquakes were notified on Monday afternoon that a magnitude-6.0 quake had occurred in Beichuan, Sichuan province.

However, the quake never happened. The provider of the information, a private institute in Chengdu, said the message was a deliberate test, not a false alarm. But a senior quake researcher said that even if that were true, it was inappropriate to stage a drill without notice that could have caused panic and resulted in casualties.

A Chengdu resident, Li Ming, was surfing the Internet in a waiting room at a railway station in the city when a pop-up on his cellphone announced that an earthquake had taken place at 3:49 pm, and seismic waves would arrive in Chengdu in 35 seconds.