Georgia’s president, Mikheil Saakashvili, has complimented a local television channel that sparked panic by broadcasting a drama which implied that the country was being invaded.

The program, in the guise of a news broadcast, featured a nervous looking presenter who said Georgia had been invaded by Russian troops and that Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was among those killed.

While viewers had been cautioned that the report was not real, many came in late to the program or did not see the warning captions.

The program was interspersed with old footage from the brief war between Georgia and Russia in 2008.

While the opposition parties in Georgia have complained about the style of broadcast, Georgia President Mikheil Saakhasvili has defended it, saying the broadcaster had tried to give notice but had failed to run the warning caption through the entire program.

He said the effect had been “unpleasant” for some people, but added that he thought the report had come close to what could really happen under Georgia’s enemies.

During the broadcast panic broke out as people ran onto the streets of the capital Tbilisi, when the network said Russian tanks had arrived.

Calls to emergency services increased during and after the broadcast, with record numbers of calls about heart attacks and fainting.

The opposition has condemned the fake newscast as a state-sponsored stunt.

The Imedi television station, which broadcast the program, is run by a close ally of the president.