The Los Angeles County sheriff’s department says US rapper The Game incited a telephone flash mob that overwhelmed the emergency phone system yesterday.

Sheriff’s Capt. Mike Parker told the Los Angeles Times that the rapper tweeted the number of the sheriff’s Compton station Friday and told his 580,000 followers that if they wanted an internship with him, they should call the number. He said that the move was “beyond irresponsible”.

Sheriff’s Lt. Suzan Young says “the phones started ringing like crazy” around 5:20 p.m. Parker says phone lines were jammed for more than two hours. A statement from the sheriff’s department said that many callers hung up as soon as the phone was answered, while others asked asked about a music internship.

A criminal investigation has now been launched. Parker says investigators are documenting the actions in a criminal complaint that they plan to forward to the district attorney’s office.

The Game has claimed that his Twitter account was hacked, and also said that tweeting the phone number was an accident:

Earlier he had said that another Twitter user had hacked his account, while he tweeted at the LA Times, Shaggy-style, that he wasn’t responsible:

Captain Parker got in on the Twitter action himself, asking The Game to remove the phone number, and telling him that he was harming public safety:

The phone number was subsequently removed from The Game’s Twitter feed.

- Additional reporting by AP