Nearly 2 million users have responded to a tongue-in-cheek Facebook event calling for a raid on a top-secret base where the US government is keeping aliens, according to outlandish conspiracy theories.
US authorities are increasingly concerned about the possible invasion of alien hunters in Lincoln County in the Nevada desert, an area which harbours the famed Area 51.
As many as 1.9 million people have RSVP'd to attend on 20 September, but an overwhelming majority very likely did so as a joke.
Lincoln County Sheriff Kerry Lee said that while he didn't expect many people to show up, even 500 or 1,000 sudden visitors could create traffic and parking issues in a jurisdiction of just 5,200 permanent residents.
“I think this started out as a joke but there may be enough people taking it seriously and it could be a problem,” the sheriff told AP. “Someone is going to get hurt and people may go to jail. It's not anything to joke about.”
The official did not specify how exactly people could get hurt, but there is at least one deadly scenario.
An Air Force spokeswoman said: “We would discourage anyone from trying to come into the area where we train American armed forces.”
“The US Air Force always stands ready to protect America and its assets.”
A Deadly Intrusion
In January, an unnamed man was killed after driving through the Nevada National Security Site (NSSS), which borders Area 51. The NSSS served as a Cold War-era test site for nuclear devices and is…
