Civil Defence carried out the first nationwide test alert of the CY-Alert system on Monday, between 2:30 and 3:30 in the afternoon. The alert sent to citizens’ mobile phones concerned a simulated missing person case involving a suspected abduction.
Civil Defence spokesperson Panayiotis Liasidis told Politis that the system functioned satisfactorily overall, while authorities are awaiting feedback from citizens through an evaluation questionnaire to draw conclusions.
At the same time, Mr Liasidis clarified that the message had to be sent twice, as during the first dispatch it was found that the link included did not open. The message was resent with a corrected link, which functioned properly.
He also noted that the alert should not have been accompanied by the characteristic loud sound, as it concerned a missing person case and not an emergency such as a fire evacuation, which had been the focus of previous test alerts. However, a small number of users reported receiving the message with the loud alert tone. Civil Defence will examine the issue, with a possible cause being that some mobile devices had not been updated.
The nationwide test followed earlier local test alerts sent on 7 and 10 June during evacuation exercises. In those cases, three messages were sent, one for initial warning and precautionary evacuation, a second for evacuation, and a third for return.
At this stage, the planned test messages for CY-Alert have been completed. If further pilot alerts are needed, Civil Defence said citizens will be informed in advance.
According to Civil Defence, in order to receive CY-Alert notifications, citizens are advised to update their mobile phone software and activate the relevant settings for “abduction or missing person” alerts. The wording of these settings may vary depending on the device.
For more information, citizens can visit www.gov.cy/cy-alert or call 1450.
