London - (True Grits): A fictitious gunman's rampage through Oxford Street has continued unabated as thousands of microbloggers got in on the act.
By lunchtime today large sections of the shopping enclave were cordoned off with terrified office workers gated for their own protection.
Despite police reassurances on the YouBoob! video channel that the hoax 'was just an early April Fool' the panic grew exponentially with speculation centred on a 'freaky' nutjob.
"Paranoid shoppers are convinced it's some sort of random 'suicide-by-cop' deathwish scenario," one passer-by told TV reporters.
"You could get $$$s thousands for the right pic."
The location is close to where drunken barrister Mark Saunders met his end in a May 2008 shoot-out with SO19 cops.
Fortunately for London W1 today's hoax has ended without loss of life or limb, even if the damp squib denouement has disappointed millions.
The next round of Chinese Whispers conspiracy peddling could come as early as tomorrow.
