UK residents will get a loud siren-like alert from their smartphones on April 23 as the government tests its new emergency alert system.
Launching the system on Sunday, the government said the system has already been tested in East Suffolk and Reading, and is now ready for a nationwide test.
The government said similar systems have been “widely credited with saving lives” in other countries including the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, and Japan, in incidents such as severe weather events.
“In the UK, alerts could be used to tell residents of villages being encroached by wildfires, or of severe flooding,” the Cabinet Office said….