The Norwegian news agency NTB accidentally announced King Harald V was dead. – The king is in great shape, wrote the Royal Palace to NRK.

“Norway is in sorrow. King Harald V is dead, xx years old. The king died xxxx (day / date) (home / hospital or the like) at xxx.”

It was the message which NTB sent to Norwegian media. The unfinished text was sent to NTB subscribers today at noon. After a while the news agency announced that the message was accidentally sent due to a technical problem in their system.

News editor Ole Kristian Bjellaanes regrets the false alarm, reports NRK.

– It’s a terribly sad situation, and we’re sorry for it. We quickly sent out a correction message, but we are sorry this happened and it is a type of mistake that obviously will not happen again, says Bjellaanes.

He said it is not unusual to prepare this type of ready made news text framework in advance.

Assistant communications manager at the Royal Palace of Norway, Svein Gjeruldsen confirmed to NRK that the king is alive and in good shape.

Earlier this year, the British tabloid newspaper The Sun made a similar mistake by having mistakenly reported that Queen Elizabeth’s husband, Prince Philip, had died .