People living in the UK will soon be subjected to the first-ever nationwide test of the government’s new emergency alert system.
Text messages will be sent to millions of 4G and 5G mobile phones at 3pm on Sunday, prompting an alert message to flash up on the screen and an alarm to sound.
The system is intended to be used to warn citizens of life-threatening situations such as flooding, wildfires, terror attacks or nuclear threats, and is based upon similar schemes in the United States, Canada, Japan and Netherlands.
The sound and vibration will last for up to 10 seconds even if devices are set to silent, with newly-announced deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden saying: “It could be the sound that saves your life.”
Domestic violence campaigners have cautioned that the test could put people in danger by revealing the location of secret phones hidden away by those at risk, while experts warning of the risk of related scams have stressed that no action is required in response to the alert.
