A South African TV station erroneously broadcast that former US President George Bush had died during one of its news bulletins.

For three seconds ETV News ran a moving banner headline across the screen saying "George Bush is dead".

The "misbroadcast" happened when a technician pressed the "broadcast live for transmission" button instead of the one for a test-run.

The mistake happened when a senior staff member wanted to see how a rolling banner headline looked.

The mistake was first reported on by the Afrikaans language newspaper Beeld, and on the media group's website, News24.com.

George Bush was well-known for making mistakes when speaking, leading to the phrase "Bushism".