As unsubstantiated rumours of a silent coup unfolding in China against president Xi Jinping dominated social media, a twitter thread mocking the coup by Beijing correspondent for German news outlet Der Spiegel went viral on Tuesday.

The reporter Georg Fahrion mocked the rumours tweeting a thread showing images from everyday life going on as normal in Beijing. Fahrion, jabbing at the rumoured coup wrote that he had undertaken his investigation at “considerable personal risk”

“Today in Beijing, I investigated the China coup so you don’t have to. At considerable personal risk, I ventured out to some neuralgic key points in the city. Disturbing finds. Brace yourselves,” the twitter thread began as he shared a selfie.

“This is Xinhua Gate, the main entrance to the Zhongnanhai compound, where the entire central leadership resides and works, including Xi Jinping. Elite paratroopers have wrested control over the gate, cunningly disguised as the five middle-aged dudes who always stand there,” he went on to write in the tongue-in-cheek tweet with images showing no sign of a coup in China.

Speculations on a coup in China began after Xi Jinping was said to be missing from the public eye following his return from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting in Uzbekistan. No officials from China’s ruling Communist Party or the state media have responded to the rumours.