Associated Press Twitter feed gets hacked claiming explosions at White House, President injured

The Associated Press’s Twitter account was hacked on Tuedsay.

Minutes after a tweet from the account that read, “Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured,” was sent, the account was suspended and the chief White House correspondent for AP announced at a White House briefing that the account had been hacked.

Moments later, White House spokesman Jay Carney went on the air to confirm that the president was unharmed.

“The president is fine,” Carney said. “I was just with him.”

Soon after, AP editors issued a statement: “The (at)AP twitter account has been hacked. The tweet about an attack at the White House is false. We will advise more as soon as possible.”

Reuters reported that “Immediately after the fake tweet went live, both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 took drastic nosedives before quickly rebounding.”

A group called the Syrian Electronic Army took credit for the attack via Twitter.

According to the New York Times, that Twitter account is linked to this website, a Syrian language site “that broadcasts what the group says are its latest cyber attacks.”

The group’s Twitter feed, which is still live while @AP and @AP_Mobile remain suspended as of Tuesday afternoon, also mentions recently hacking “Fifa and its president Joseph Blatter Twitter accounts” as well as CBS’s feed.