A little more fiery than faux crop circles, European mobile phone company Tele2 and its PR firm staged a meteor crater near the Latvia-Estonia border as part of a PR stunt that has backfired.

The hoax included a nine-foot deep crater with burning chemicals at the bottom that produced a dramatic effect for news cameras. The incident was so real that scientists rushed to the site after reports circulated.
The government of Latvia is not amused about the prank and said it is canceling its contracts with Tele2 in the wake of the incident, which was carried as news around the web.

You can almost hear Latvian Interior Minister Linda Murniece's stern accent telling Sky News: "We don't want to do business with a firm that promotes itself at our expense."

Tel2 brand manager Vita Sirica told Sky News the stunt, part of a marketing push launching shortly, was intended to "draw attention away from Latvia's economic crisis and toward something else more interesting."