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Don't panic, World War III hasn't actually started

Hackers used Twitter accounts of major news organisations to claim the US and China were firing missiles at one another. They’re definitely not.

TWITTER ACCOUNTS BELONGING to the New York Post and news agency UPI were hacked today, sending out tweets claiming China had fired at a US warship.

In a series of tweets on UPI’s account, hackers said there was damage to the USS George Washington ship and the US Navy had returned fire.

This was followed up with quotes they claimed came from China’s President Xi Jinping and a fairly dramatic line from the Pope:

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told USA Today that the USS George Washington is safe and in drydock.

She has not been attacked by anybody.

The tweets on both accounts have now been deleted. This comes after the Twitter account for US Central Command was broken into this week. Hackers declaring sympathy for Islamic State posted personal details of army members and claimed to reveal details of US intelligence on North Korea.

Read: Hackers claiming to be ISIS broke into a Pentagon Twitter account>

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