Around 5000 sirens are tested throughout Switzerland at the beginning of February
Published: Friday, Jan 19th 2024, 11:10
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Around 5000 sirens throughout Switzerland will be tested for functionality on February 7. The Alertswiss warning app will also be tested at the same time. On the occasion of this test, the Federal Office for Civil Protection (Babs) launches additional language versions for the emergency plan.
The siren test will take place on Wednesday between 1.30 and 4.30 pm, as announced by Babs on Friday. The population does not need to take any action. The general alarm (regular ascending and descending wailing tone for one minute) and the water alarm in the near zones below dams (twelve low continuous tones of 20 seconds) will be tested. Last year, 99 percent of the sirens worked perfectly.
In each canton, a message is also triggered via Alertswiss. This message does not trigger a siren sound on the smartphone, as is the case with an alarm message, writes the Babs. According to Babs, the app is actively installed on around two million mobile devices.
In addition to the national languages, the available languages of the emergency plan also include Portuguese, Albanian, Spanish, Serbian, Croatian, Turkish, Arabic and Ukrainian. An easy-to-read version is also available in German, French and Italian. The document helps people to prepare for emergencies and provides practical tips for their own preparation, writes Babs.
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