This Just In: A Lion Is Loose and the Gabonese Have Landed--Not

A pair of radio broadcasts intended as April Fools’ Day jokes failed to produce any yuks when listeners took them seriously.

In Jerusalem, an army radio broadcast was interrupted by a report claiming a lost tribe of black Jews from Gabon had been secretly airlifted to Israel as part of “Operation Elijah.”

The claim was even backed up by several Israeli mayors and the head of the group coordinating immigration to Israel. They debated the pros and cons of allowing the Gabonese in.

The report’s one problem--Gabon has only a tiny Jewish community, mostly expatriate Israeli business people, and none had been airlifted to Israel. But few in Jerusalem seemed to know that: The immigration desk at Ben Gurion Airport was flooded with telephone calls from the media and others offering help, the Itim news agency reported.

In Cameroon on Friday, panic swept through the capital, Yaounde, when a radio station warned a lion was on the rampage on the city outskirts.

Residents pulled their children indoors and locked windows after Yaounde FM 94 said the lion was closing in on the densely populated Cite Verte suburb. A truckload of gendarmes was seen driving through the area, looking for the beast.

By evening, most people realized the lion tale was a hoax.