Panic over: volcanoes are not a threat

3:11pm Thursday 27th September 2007

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ON Tuesday, the Swindon Advertiser carried a story on page six under the headline: "Houses damaged as parts of UK struck by volcanoes."

As we are well known as an excellent source of accurate and unbiased local and national news, this headline caused a degree of bemusement among many readers.

Looking from their windows, they were surprised (although not unpleasantly) to see the same landscape as ever, rather than plumes of molten rock and deadly poisonous gas being blasted dozens of miles into the sky.

It was also with some relief that they noted the roads to be free of glowing lava flows that melted cars and instantly vaporized any life forms unfortunate enough to cross their path.

Such lava flows would have prolonged commuting times considerably, even without the added inconvenience of having the entire community and everything in it entombed by a yards-deep blanket of red hot pumice.

Some readers, such as Roger Hern, wondered whether our headline was an early April Fool's joke. He emailed to ask: "Exactly where did these volcanoes hit the UK?"

We would like to clarify that the headline above Tuesday's story was the result of a headline-writer having the word "volcanoes" pop into their mind when they meant to write "tornadoes".

We realise that the headline we printed might have given the impression that Swindon and the rest of the country were in the process of being consumed in a maelstrom of superheated doom.

We apologise for any distress or confusion this may have caused.