President Is Safe, There Was No Attack: White House On Hacked AP Tweet

The White House was forced to release a statement assuring that President Barack Obama is unharmed following a false report from the Associated Press Twitter feed, which indicated explosions at the presidential residence had injured the chief executive.

The Twitter account of the Associated Press was hacked on Tuesday afternoon, leading the news agency to quickly shut it down.

“The AP Twitter account has been hacked,” AP said in a statement. “The tweet about an attack at the White House is false. We will advise more as soon as possible.”

The false report also caused a brief panic on Wall Street, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging more than 150 points, but the index quickly recouped all losses when the report was revealed to be a hoax.

A group calling itself the Syrian Electronic Army took credit for the AP hack.