Police in Manukau have launched their own Twitter account after wasting time following up a tweet that a gunman was on the loose and a person had been shot.
Officers were called to the Mangere Work and Income site on Thursday afternoon because of a suspicious package, which prompted the false tweet.
The musician Che Fu has acknowledged on his Twitter account that he originally tweeted he'd been told a man was shot outside the Wananga o Aotearoa campus in Mangere, and later posted it was a bomb, not a shooting.
The police say they received dozens of calls from concerned people and officers were diverted for several hours to check the area for the non-existent gunman.
The suspicious package turned out to be an empty suitcase.
The Manukau police say they will endeavour to give clear information through their Twitter account.
