Gilberto Martinez Vera, a 48-year-old school teacher, and Maria de Jesus Bravo Pagola, a radio host, are accused of spreading fake reports of gunmen attacking schools in Mexico's south-eastern city of Veracruz. The pair faces up to 30 years in prison.
The resulting panic caused dozens of car crashes after parents rushed to save their children from schools across the city and jammed emergency telephone lines, which "totally collapsed" under the pressure.
Gerardo Buganza, the interior secretary for Veracruz state, compared the ensuing chaos to Orson Welles's spoof news broadcast War of the Worlds in 1938. The two are facing charges under terrorism laws.
Read more: Guardian UK.
Photo: veracruzenred.com.
