'Syrian hackers' break into Associated Press' Twitter account and break a false news that explosions at White House have injured Obama

AFRIK UPDATE

'Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured,' the news agency Tweeted just after 1pm on Tuesday causing panic to some of their near 2 million followers.

The White House and AP assured the public minutes later that the report was not true but word didn't appear to come fast enough to those frantically watching and responding on Wall Street.

Syrian hackers have claimed responsibility for tweeting a false report by the Associated Press of explosions at the White House which plunged the DOW Jones Industrial average more than 100 points and the Standard & Poor's 500 to lose $136.5 billion.

In a graph capturing traders' apparent panic, the DOW Jones Industrial average took a straight dive plunging from about 14,700 to around 14,570 before gradually shooting back up in a three-minute roller coaster. 

The S&P 500 Index also fell about 1 percent, wiping out $136.5 billion before gradually recovering their loses, according to Reuters data.

Amid the hysteria the volume of trading on the New York Stock Exchange blew up to an intra-day high of 3.06 million.

The alarming message by the AP appeared retweeted at least 1,181 times before its deletion.

Both the DOW Jones and the S&P regained their previous levels following word of the news agency's hacking minutes later.

An editor with the AP wrote: 'Please ignore AP tweet on explosions, we've been hacked.'

'The President is fine, I was just with him,' White House Press Secretary Jay Carney also told the media.