Lionel Messi mistakenly declared dead by US Sports Network

By Staff Writer
Updated: 29 May, 2012

US Media giant Fox Sports mistakenly declared Barcelona star Lionel Messi had died of a heart attack on Sunday according to reports from Catalan daily, SPORT.

The network, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, made the blunder on its Norte twitter feed when it published a tweet reading: “We announce the sad news that Lionel Messi died of cardiopulmonary arrest during a workout.”

A hashtag was also attached to the update which read: #RipMessi .

The tweet was removed soon after but it had already been picked up by a number of Spanish media outlets, including the the Barcelona-centric SPORT.

There was an immediate response to the tweet as shocked fans of the Argentine international sought clarification of the news; especially as Messi had been seen celebrating Friday’s Copa del Rey triumph just a few hours earlier.

Fox are yet to comment on the incident but it is believed their Twitter account may have been hacked.

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