KUALA LUMPUR: The Meteorology Department (MetMalaysia) has denied an alleged typo in one of its thunderstorm warning statements.
The statement in question was one issued on Aug 10 at 3.30am.
Its director-general Jailan Simon said the statement was edited by irresponsible quarters.
"All statements on weather forecast by MetMalaysia is uploaded automatically via our system.
"There is no way it can be altered unless it was done after the statement was issued," he said.
The edited version saw the header "Ribut Petir" amended to "Ribut Pelir".
"Pelir" in the Malay language is considered crude in which it means a certain body part of the male anatomy.
Jailan urges the public to stop sharing the edited statement.
"For official statements, the public can refer to our official website at http://www.met.gov.my/, our official social media pages under MetMalaysia or the myCuaca application which can be downloaded via the Google Playstore or the Apple App Store," he said.
Earlier, screenshots of the statement bearing the header "Ribut Pelir" went viral on social media.
Jailan said this was not the first time MetMalaysia has had their statements edited.
"There have been instances in which irresponsible quarters edited weather forecasts that we issued.
"Things like these can cause worry amongst the public. When the (edited) forecast does not happen, this will lead to some people losing confidence in MetMalaysia eventhough we did not issue the forecast.
"All false statements will be reported to the Malaysian Communications And Multimedia Commission (MCMC) for further action," he added.