Travellers at Ireland’s main airport were left alarmed and then bemused on Friday, after an announcement on the public address system told them to evacuate the building, only for staff to say that everything was okay.

The problem occurred at around 6.30am in Terminal 1 of Dublin airport. The PA system repeatedly issued a message telling people that an evacuation was underway.

“Attention please, attention please. We are responding to an alarm activation. Please evacuate this area immediately and follow the directions of airport staff,” it said.

It would be great if staff at Dublin airport could provide some directions... pic.twitter.com/igcWlqiStT — S3 (@S3Clarke) June 1, 2018

However there was no evacuation; instead, a fault with the PA system had left it stuck on “evacuation mode” and, because of the system fault, airport staff were unable to use the PA system to reassure customers.

The airport tried to reassure people over Twitter, saying: “The system is stuck on evacuation mode. There is NO evacuation of this area. Our sound engineers are currently investigating.”

There is a fault with our PA system at our Pier 1 gates @DublinAirport. The system is stuck on evacuation mode. There is NO evacuation of this area. Our sound engineers are currently investigating. — Dublin Airport (@DublinAirport) June 1, 2018

The fault caused a considerable amount of concern and stress among passengers. One man told Irish news site TheJournal.ie that people were unaware of what was happening: “Chaos in Terminal 1 Dublin Airport due to alarm activation. Staff haven’t a clue what to do as boarding gate area is evacuated.” People also took to Twitter to vent their frustrations.

@DublinAirport crazy scenario in terminal 1 being asked to evacuate but staff have no clue how to manage this. — Michael Mc Carthy (@Scholarstown1) June 1, 2018

Alarms going off @DublinAirport saying to evacuate. Nobody moving, not even staff look bothered. Nice if someone announced what's happening — Neil Hill (@Neil_Hill_QA) June 1, 2018

Evacuation in @DublinAirport T1 complete chaos. Wouldn't like to see how they handle a real emergency #falsealarm — Rob Jones (@ROBJON3S) June 1, 2018

After the false evacuation announcement continuing for more than 20 minutes, staff eventually solved the problem by simply turning the system off.

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