King of Norway accidentally reported dead by country's biggest news agency

NTB sends news organisations template obituary announcing monarch's death

King Harald V (far right) was wrongly reported dead by a Norwegian news agency (ASERUD, LISE/AFP/Getty Images)

The Royal Palace in Norway has confirmed King Harald V is “fine” after the country's biggest news agency wrongly reported the monarch had died.

NTB sent a template obituary to various Norwegian news outlets on Tuesday, announcing that “Norway is in mourning”.

The alert was missing various details replaced by an ‘xxxx’, including his age, date and time of death.

A correction was issued three minutes after the initial email was sent at 12.06pm. “NTB is withdrawing the alert [of the King’s death], which was sent due to a technical error. We sincerely apologise,” the statement said.

Mads Yngve Storvik, NTB managing editor, described the incident as “extremely regrettable”, saying the agency was “very sad” that the mistake had happened.

“The editorial team has background reports and obituaries for a number of famous people saved in a folder. These are regularly updated. It was in connection with such an update that the alert was sent due to an error,” he said.

Svein Gjeruldsen, Royal Palace assistant head of communications, told NRK the 80-year-old was in “fine form”.

The broadcaster reported King Harald was spending part of this week hunting elk.