DHAKA: The BBC apologized on Wednesday after a journalist erroneously posted a Twitter message saying Britain’s Queen Elizabeth had been taken to hospital after falling ill.

The 89-year-old monarch, who will become the country’s longest serving sovereign in September, had in fact briefly attended London’s King Edward VII Hospital for her annual health check-up, Buckingham Palace said.

‘This was a routine, pre-scheduled appointment. The queen has now left the hospital,’ a spokeswoman said, reports The Straits Times.

The palace statement came after a tweet by a BBC journalist implied Elizabeth had been rushed to the hospital for treatment. The journalist later deleted the tweet and apologized for what she said was the result of a ‘silly prank’.

The BBC said in a statement, ‘During a technical rehearsal for an obituary, tweets were mistakenly sent from the account of a BBC journalist saying that a member of the royal family had been taken ill. The tweets were swiftly deleted and we apologize for any offence.’

BDST: 1941 HRS, JUN 03, 2015
RR