In Berlin and Brandenburg, for the first time in 30 years, an inspection of the public notification system was carried out. Local authorities tested various signals to practice emergency response, reports on Berlin’s official website.
As part of the Warning Day, more than 200 sirens were activated in the capital. First, an alarm signal sounded, and after 45 minutes – a signal about its rejection. At the same time, residents received messages on their mobile phones.
Although Warning Day is celebrated in Germany for the fifth year in a row on the second Thursday of September, this time the sirens sounded for the first time since 1993. Previously, they were dismantled as unnecessary, but “changes in the security situation” forced the authorities to return the system. By the end of the year, Berlin plans to launch 450 sirens, and over the next two years to install another 100 in remote areas.
Iris Spranger, a senator for the interior of Berlin, explained that under the “change in the security situation” refers to a “combination of extreme weather events, power outages, cyberattacks and the current global situation with an aggressive war in Europe”.
“There must be an understanding of personal responsibility among the population. Everyone should think about how to inform themselves and how to act, said Iris Spranger.
