A South African TV station erroneously broadcast that former US President George Bush had died during one of its news bulletins, according to BBC.

For three seconds ETV News ran a moving banner headline across the screen saying "George Bush is dead".

The "misbroadcast" happened when a technician pressed the "broadcast live for transmission" button instead of the one for a test-run.

Видео дня

The station said test banners would now be done in "gobbledegook".

The mistake happened when a senior staff member wanted to see how a rolling banner headline looked.

"The technical director pressed the wrong button, it took a second for the words to appear and then the words were on screen for only three seconds before they were taken off," said spokesman Vasili Vass.

`Unfortunate`

He said he could not comment on if the person responsible would face disciplinary action.

"We`ve learned from it, all test banners will now be done in gobbledegook," he added.

The mistake was first reported on by the Afrikaans language newspaper Beeld, and on the media group`s website, News24.com.

"Its unfortunate, because we never comment on their mistakes," said Mr Vass.

George Bush was well-known for making mistakes when speaking, leading to the phrase "Bushism".

He famously said he had been "misunderestimated".