Many woke up to a jolt when the Ontario Provincial Police issued a province-wide Amber Alert at 6 a.m. Friday morning. Luckily, the alert was cancelled just 45 minutes later when the missing one-year-old girl was found safe and a man was arrested according to Waterloo Regional Police, but some initially thought the alert was something else entirely.

With tensions running high amid the largest European war unfolding since World War II, waking up to the deafening wail of alert tones from digital devices and televisions had some people thinking their worst fears may have come true overnight.

In case you've been cut off from world events, tensions between eastern and western powers are higher than they've been since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and a full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces has worrying hashtags like #worldwar3 trending on Twitter.

Anyone else woke up at 6AM to the sound of the #amberalert thinking it was war related or am I just high strung af #WWIII pic.twitter.com/fFBuwxh006

— Ursie (@ursdesouz) February 25, 2022

While there have been no direct confrontations between Russian and NATO forces that would escalate this to a global conflict, a lot can happen overnight, and the alert was enough to make some groggy-eyed Ontario residents panic before they read the message on their phones.

Getting an emergency amber alert at 6am was unnerving given everything that's happening in Ukraine. For a second, as my phone blared its loud siren, I thought there had been some crazy war escalation. Turns out it was just another missing kid.

— Adam Zivo (@ZivoAdam) February 25, 2022

As with every Amber Alert, people whined on Twitter about the unexpected wake-up call, though this round of complaints — while still coming off as indifferent to the fate of a missing child — were fuelled by concerns of an already tense situation overseas spiralling further out of control.

Yeah I should’ve added that I get there’s a war happening, it’s scary but everytime theres a amber alert, which is used for abducted kids & everyone justs complains about being woken up from it. When they can just help out & share what it is bc not all ppl in the region gets it.

— n💫⁷ (@yoonginbxby) February 25, 2022

The jarring alert tone — similar to what one would hear during a national emergency — ringing out during early morning had some ready to pack up and head for the hills.

That amber alert this morning scared the fuck out of me bc I really thought it was saying war started and to evacuate LMAO

— Sarah Coulter (@sarahcoulterxo) February 25, 2022

It only really took a moment to actually read the alert and realize that there was no impending nuclear attack, a conclusion people probably shouldn't be racing to in the first place.