A post on Face Book last night about a ship firing guns at the island of Ta’u, Manu’a kept many people up all night.
The post said that a boat anchored off Manu’a had fired shots at the island and women and children were scrambling to the hills.
Here’s a screen shot of the post which people read.
KHJ News received a call from a FB reader around 1:30am seeking verification about the Manu’a incident.
Having gone to bed early, we were not aware of the FB post and the worried response it was generating not just from people here but Samoans around the world.
We made calls to the US Coast Guard, DPS, Port Administration and Homeland Security, literally waking up officials from their sleep.
We were informed by Homeland Security that an unusual looking boat had anchored close to shore off Ta’u Island. Some village men decided to scare the boat away and fired guns in the air.
When we spoke to Homeland Security’s Vini Atofau around 2am, he said that the Emergency Operations Center had received several calls about the FB post. He assured that everything was under control and there was no need for alarm.
KHJ News apologizes for interrupting the sleep of authorities whom we called for information.
