The Honolulu Police Department's Communications Division mistakenly issued a MAILE Alert to television stations shortly before 2:30 p.m. yesterday.

Police spokeswoman Michelle Yu said the announcement should have been issued as a test but was sent out in error as an alert. The alert was seen as a crawl moving across the screen on stations including CNN and KHON.

The MAILE Alert system, patterned after the AMBER alert system, is used when a child younger than 11 years old may have been abducted or is believed to be in imminent danger of serious bodily injury or death.