There was an incorrect emergency message broadcast on the emergency broadcast system on Wednesday.

The first Wednesday of each month, St. Louis County tests it’s emergency broadcast system loudspeakers, but Wednesday’s message had many people thinking there was an actual emergency.

The emergency support services administrator for St. Louis County, Dewey Johnson sent out a statement explaining what happened. During Wednesday’s routine test one of the operators pressed the warning button rather than the test button.

“This caused the wrong alert tone to sound. A lot of people likely aren’t aware there’s a difference between the test tone and the tone for a real emergency, but for those who do know, this may have caused concern, and for that we apologize.”

Dewey Johnson, Emergency Support Services Administrator for St. Louis County

Even though the message instructed resident to seek shelter immediately, there never was any actual emergency.