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A PR stunt backfired in spectacular fashion when a police bomb squad was called to a website's offices.

The bomb disposal unit was brought in after after a reporter at Australia's ninemsn was sent a black safe with a note telling her to "check her voicemail".

She had received a sinister hang-up message from an unknown number the night before - leading to fears she may be being targeted.

When staff tried to open the safe, which was reportedly similar to those found in hotel rooms, it began to beep.

Her employers phoned around other newsrooms to see if any had received similarly strange packages.

Fearing the worst, staff at the website then called police and evacuated their offices in central Sydney.

A bomb disposal squad was on the scene within minutes to remove the safe to the relative security of the building's basement.

But after forcing it open, they discovered it contained a videogame, in what ninesman branded an "ill-conceived public relations effort" to promote its latest game, Watch Dogs.

Hal Crawford, from the website, said: "There was a bunch of reasons this ended up looking weird.

"The PR company no doubt got carried away with their creativity and ended up sending us something the bomb squad had to open up."

Ninesman said it did not cover video games.

A staff member tweeted:

@Brentus88 @drpiotrowski Yup. Stood next to the journo who received it - she was in tears. Really creepy. — Natasha Lee (@tashlee) May 28, 2014

A spokesman for Ubisoft, the makers of Watch Dogs, said: "As part of a themed promotion for Watch Dogs, our team in Australia sent voicemail messages to some local media alerting them that they’d receive a special package related to the game.

"Unfortunately, the delivery to Ninemsn didn't go as planned, and we unreservedly apologise to Ninemsn’s staff for the mistake and for any problems caused as a result. We will take additional precautions in the future to ensure this kind of situation doesn’t happen again.”