Bogus TV report of Russian invasion panics Georgia

By Tom Esslemont BBC News, Tbilisi

Russian tanks threatened Georgia's capital in 2008

Momentary panic was sparked in Georgia after TV broadcasted the news that Russian tanks had invaded the capital and the country's president was dead.

The national network report - with echoes of the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia - turned out to be false.

However, mobile phone networks were overwhelmed with calls and many people rushed onto the streets.

Imedi TV said the aim of the report had been to show how events might unfold if the president were killed.

For a brief moment on Saturday evening many Georgians thought history was repeating itself.

'Disgusting'

It is only 18 months since Russian tanks came within 45km (28 miles) of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.

In its news report, Imedi TV showed archive footage of the war and imagined how opposition figures might seize power after an assassination of the country's President, Mikheil Saakashvili.

Although the broadcast was introduced as a simulation of possible events, the warning was lost on many Georgians.

One local news agency reported that emergency services had received an unusually high volume of calls in the ensuing minutes.

And once calm returned, the report was seen by some as a poorly disguised swipe at the Georgian opposition politicians who recently travelled to Moscow to meet Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

The head of the holding company which owns Imedi TV, George Arveladze, told Reuters that the aim was to show "the real threat" of how events might unfold.

That did not stop dozens of journalists and angry Georgians who gathered outside the Imedi TV studios to protest.

One opposition politician who was there labelled the report "disgusting".