Millions of mobile phones across the United Kingdom simultaneously emitted a siren-like sound as part of a national emergency preparedness exercise, AFP reported. The alert interrupted England’s third cricket match against South Africa, while the start of a rugby league game was delayed to avoid confusion.

At 3:00 p.m. local time, phones and tablets broadcast a sound and vibration for about 10 seconds, accompanied by a message confirming it was a test. This was only the second trial of the national emergency alert system, following the first in 2023.

The government carried out a wide public information campaign in recent weeks to minimize the risk of panic, including announcements at railway stations and electronic signs on motorways. Over the past two years, the system has been used in real emergencies five times for localized warnings.

In January, around 4.5 million people in Scotland and Northern Ireland received an alert due to Storm Isha, which was accompanied by a red weather warning for danger to life. In February last year, a 500-kilogram unexploded World War II bomb discovered in a backyard in southwest England prompted an alert sent to nearly 50,000 phones.

The system is intended for the most serious emergencies where lives are at risk. Alerts can also be broadcast via television, radio, and, if necessary, through door-to-door notifications. Similar systems are already in operation in the United States and Japan.

Only devices connected to 4G or 5G networks received the alerts. The initiative comes amid government efforts to strengthen the country’s resilience in the face of increasingly frequent extreme weather events and threats linked to Russia’s war in Ukraine. In its “Resilience Action Plan” published in July, the government also highlighted lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, tariffs imposed by former U.S. President Donald Trump, and cyberattacks. |BGNES