NEVADA: Several dozen people — rather than the two million feared — showed up on Friday near a secretive US military base in the Nevada desert, answering a meme-inspired Facebook event to storm the site in search of aliens.
The revelers, some wearing alien masks or tin foil hats, began gathering at the suggested time of 3am Friday near the base known as “Area 51,” but they did not attempt to storm the heavily-guarded site.
Despite millions responding to the public Facebook event “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us,” Nevada authorities say about 40 people gathered at the gates before being confronted and dispersed by law enforcement.
One woman who attempted to pass under a gate was briefly detained as was a man who urinated nearby.
The military issued a stern warning ahead of the event saying lethal force would be used against anyone who tried to trespass at the site, which the government only acknowledged existed in 2013.
Area 51 had long been shrouded in mystery, stoking conspiracy theories that it housed the remnants of a flying saucer and the bodies of its alien crew from a supposed unidentified flying object crash in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947. The US government did not confirm the base existed until 2013 when it released CIA archives saying the site was used to test top-secret spy planes.
The documents, however, did not end suspicion about space aliens there.
Area 51 sits about 12 miles (19 km) from the tiny town of Rachel, a community of about 50 year-round residents north of Las Vegas that hosted a music festival to entertain those travelling to the region.