News organisations across the world have been busy producing graphic illustrations of what happened to Air Algérie’s flight 5017, which crashed Thursday in Mali. The LA Times managed to create a version that wiped France off the map entirely.

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The LA Times graphic showed the sites of three airplane crashes – in Ukraine, Taiwan and in Mali – that occurred in the space of a week.

But somehow the newspaper also managed to wipe France off the map entirely, creating a vast new gap between the British Isles and Europe, and turning Spain into an island.

It also reduced the entire African continent to just one country (“Africa”).

Predictably, the image made the rounds on Twitter, with many French users of the microblogging site asking what on earth had happened to their country.

“BREAKING: France 100% flooded, Africa turned into country, according to @latimes,” tweeted FRANCE 24 journalist Thomas Hubert.

“The French are going to have to learn to swim,” joked France’s newspaper of record Le Monde on Friday.

“Switzerland, meanwhile, has discovered the ocean and Geneva has become an Atlantic town. No more skiing, let’s hit the beach!”



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