Chinese internet giant Tencent was forced to apologise after it falsely reported that a typhoon had "killed nearly everyone" in Shandong, according to the BBC.

A 2016 census estimated the population of Shandong at 99.4 million, making it one of China's most populous provinces.

Claimed that typhoon "killed nearly everyone"

Typhoon Lekima hit three provinces of eastern China over the weekend, forcing more than two million residents to evacuate.

On Aug. 12, Tencent Video sent out a news alert to its subscribers, claiming that the typhoon had "killed nearly everyone" in the eastern province of Shandong, and that seven people were missing.

The alert cited the provincial emergency management department as the news source.

Within minutes of issuing the alert, Tencent video apologised for the mistake, and sent out a corrected news alert, saying "Lekima has killed five people in Shandong."

Subsequent media reports said the death toll reached 56.

Tencent said it was an editorial error, and vowed to strictly review future content before publishing.

Mixed reactions online

Screenshots showing the erroneous message were widely shared on Chinese microblogging site, Weibo.

Some were understandably upset with Tencent, citing the consequences of their poor editorial standards.

However, some took a more light-hearted view of the error.

"I live in Shandong. Tencent is really amazing, I didn't even know I died," said one commenter.

Top image from Xinhua.