Buckingham Palace has taken the unusual step of confirming that Queen Elizabeth II went to a hospital for her annual medical checkup, after social media comments touched off speculation on her health.

The palace said in a statement Wednesday that the 89-year-old monarch attended her annual medical checkup at King Edward VII Hospital in London, and left after the routine exam.

Speculation had started after Ahmen Khawaja, a reporter working for the BBC's Urdu-language service, tweeted that the queen was being treated at the hospital.

"Queen Elizabrth [sic] has died," the reporter said in a second tweet, NBC News reported. That erroneous tweet was quickly deleted, but NBC News posted a screenshot of it.

The BBC later apologized, saying the mistake occurred during an exercise it described as a "technical rehearsal for an obituary."

The BBC says "the tweets were swiftly deleted and we apologize for any offense."