The city of Yokohama in Japan has had to offer up some quick apologies to its nearly 42,000 followers for erroneously tweeting that North Korea had launched a missile at its homeland.

Earlier today, the Crisis Management Office Affairs Bureau for Yokohama tweeted that North Korea had launched a missile at Japan. The tweet stayed up for 20 minutes before being taken down and replaced with an apology from the city, saying that its tweet was sent out in error.

Yokohama acknowledged the error on its Web site (Google Translate), saying it created the tweet in advance to inform citizens in the event of a missile launch. The city reported that the "mechanism" that would have sent the tweet at the right time malfunctioned, allowing the tweet to hit the Web.

Tensions have been high in Japan as North Korea has ramped up its rhetoric and threats toward several countries, including the United States. So far, however, no missiles have been launched. Yokohama officials acknowledged this and said they wouldn't allow such a mistake to happen again.

(Via AFP)