A BBC reporter is facing disciplinary action after misreporting the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Twitter.

The Queen with her 'mischievious glint' in a new portrait for her 88th birthday. Source: Associated Press

Ahmen Khawaja made the mistake when she overheard a regular rehearsal for royal deaths, believing it to be breaking news, the Telegraph reports.

The tweet, which has since been deleted, read: "Queen Elizabeth has died": @BBCWorld

Ms Khawaja had previously sent a tweet saying: "BREAKING: Queen Elizabeth is being treated at King Edward 7th Hospital in London. Statement due shortly: @BBCWorld."

The King Edward VII Hospital was used in the BBC script during the rehearsal and by sheer coincidence the Queen was in fact there having her regular check-up at the time.

The 31-year-old broadcast journalist quickly realised her mistake and deleted it, saying: "False alarm: Have deleted previous tweets!"

With the rumour of the Queen's death spreading quickly, Buckingham Palace was forced to issue a statement, breaking protocol on refusing to comment on the health of the royal family. The Queen is fine.

The BBC later apologised for the tweet, saying in a statement: "During a technical rehearsal for an obituary, tweets were mistakenly sent from the account of a BBC journalist saying that a member of the Royal Family had been taken ill. The tweets were swiftly deleted and we apologise for any offence."