‘Humans, we have arrived!’ Brazilians receive alien invasion alerts

Thousands of Brazilians across multiple states were shocked and puzzled by emergency alerts sent to their cell phones in the middle of the night, some containing gibberish while others warned them to brace for an imminent alien attack.

The false alarms were sent between Friday night and early Saturday morning through Brazil’s national Civil Defense Alert platform, a system normally reserved for serious warnings about floods, landslides, storms and other emergencies.

Instead, residents in several cities were jolted awake by “extreme alert” notifications containing the word “misanthropy” – meaning hatred or distrust of humanity – while others received messages that sounded less like public safety advice and more like the opening scene of a low-budget sci-fi blockbuster.

“Protect yourself: ALIEN ATTACK. Humans, we have arrived,” read the message received by some residents of Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais state, according to G1 Globo. Another version also warned of a supposed tornado in the metropolitan region.

There was, officials later clarified, no alien invasion. The real emergency, according to Brazil’s National Civil Defense, was much more earthly: the alert platform had apparently been compromised.

The agency said the system was taken offline at 1:30am on Saturday after an unauthorized third party remotely triggered alerts to several regions of the country. The Federal Police have launched a probe, while technicians are working to restore the platform.

For many Brazilians, the first response was not official concern but memes. Others were less amused, noting that the same alert system is supposed to warn people of real disasters and that a false “extreme” message in the middle of the night could easily cause panic.