A seismic alert notification that arrived on Android phones this Tuesday in at least nine provinces of Cuba triggered collective panic among the population, causing scenes of mass evacuation in Camagüey, Santiago de Cuba, and Havana, among other cities.
The National Center for Seismological Research (CENAIS) and Civil Defense later denied that there had been seismic activity to justify the alert.
The alert appeared after 3:00 p.m. with the message "earthquake alert, remain calm" and generated scenes of panic in several cities that were captured in videos shared on social media. In Camagüey, residents ran out of buildings and the beach was empty within seconds; in Havana, the Plaza Vieja —described by witnesses as "emptier than ever"— filled with people in an instant.
“Sir, the earthquake alert went off on the phones and look at how people are coming out. The beach is empty. Everyone is gathering,” reported a witness in one of the videos captured in Camagüey that circulated widely.
A resident of Camagüey described the moment with distress: "I was at home, lying down, and suddenly this alert came in saying there was an earthquake warning, to stay calm. My mom's phone went off, all the phones in the house rang. I really don’t know what’s happening, but I am very scared."
Enrique Diego Arango Arias, head of the Cuban National Seismological Service and technical deputy director of CENAIS, was emphatic: “The alert received on mobile devices is not based on any officially issued alert.” The authorities deemed the notice as “completely false” and clarified that the network of seismological stations did not detect any activity to support it.
Yes, a quake was recorded that same day with its epicenter in Ciego de Ávila, but the authorities clarified that its characteristics did not match the mass alert received on mobile phones and that it caused no damage or casualties.
The notification is attributed to the Google Android earthquake alert system, which uses the accelerometers in phones to detect vibrations consistent with seismic waves and sends automatic alerts to nearby users. The system is enabled by default in Cuba for earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or higher, although Google acknowledges that it is not infallible and that its estimates may contain errors. So far, the exact technical cause that triggered the mass notifications has not been determined or publicly explained.
Several users described the episode as "the first time in the history of Cuba" that a seismic alert reached all mobile phones simultaneously, which intensified the confusion. The context did not help to calm emotions: so far in 2026, the island has recorded at least nine perceptible earthquakes, including one with a magnitude of 6.0 in Imías, Guantánamo, in March, and another of 6.2 in the western part of the country in June.
The high seismic activity accumulated throughout the year has kept the population alert to any signs of this kind, which explains the magnitude of the reaction. According to CENAIS and the Civil Defense, the authorities are still investigating the technical origin of the false notification without having provided a definitive explanation yet.
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