BRITS may hear a loud blast from their phones today – as authorities test a new national emergency alarm.
The Government will try out a terror alert between 1pm and 2pm, and those living in East Suffolk have been chosen to trial the tech.
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A loud siren noise will sound from some mobiles or tablet this afternoon as part of the test.
A second test will then be held in Reading on June 15.
If it is successful, the system will be rolled out across the UK.
And while those picked for the trial might be a bit unnerved, officials say no response is required.
Once the system is up and running it will send alerts to people in areas where there is a risk to life, such as during flood or terror attack.
But people have been warned their phones must be up-to-date to get the messages.
The alerts will only work on iPhones running iOS 14.5 or later, or Android phones and tablets running Android 11 or later.
Emergency alert systems are used across the world.
The USA, Netherlands, Canada, South Korea, Japan and New Zealand all have such a system in place.
However, the UK has never had an emergency alert, despite trials a decade ago.
As a result, during the early stages of the pandemic in Britain, the Government had to rely on mobile operators to send messages to customers.
