Dhaka, Dec. 8 -- False earthquake alerts went off Wednesday on Android smartphones in Iran as the country continues to grapple with nationwide protests. Authorities offered conflicting accounts as to why the incident happened.

Col. Ramin Pashaei, deputy chief of Iran's cyber police, told Iranian state television that only Android phones received the false alert. He blamed testing at state-owned service provider Iran Mobile Communications Co. for the alert.

Meanwhile, Iran's state-run IRNA news agency described the incident as a hack and said: "This message is fake; do not leave your homes." The two conflicting accounts of the event could not be immediately reconciled, reports AP.

Google, which provides the Android software, said: "The ...