Quake rumour sends widespread panic in Ashanti Region

Kumasi, Jan 18, GNA - There was widespread panic in the Ashanti Region at dawn on Monday following rumours that an earthquake was about to strike the country.

Mothers with babies strapped at their backs, the aged and able-bodied took refuge in school football fields and the streets. The people had received desperate telephone calls and text messages from friends and relatives that there would be an earthquake between 2300 hours on Sunday and 0330 hours on Monday. So scared were people that majority of them missed the usual morning church services.

The source of the rumour is not yet known and Frequency Modulation (FM) radio stations in the region have denied putting out the information. Mr Kofi Boakye, a businessman, told the Ghana News Agency that he received the "false alarm" through a phone call from a friend in Elubo in the Western Region. "I was terrified, seeing the grisly television pictures of the recent Haiti quake. I am relieved that this whole thing has turned out to be false." People are going about their normal work. Schools are in session, offices opened, the traders and hawkers doing brisk business.