According to the control center, the false alarm was not triggered by a technical defect. Someone simply pressed the button too early during the handover. Because actually there should only be a test alarm in the district of Kleve at noon. On every first Saturday of the month at 12 noon, the sirens in the district are tested with an announced test alarm. “But we’re doing without that now, otherwise the citizens would go completely crazy‘ the spokesman continued.
“We’re awake now”
In any case, the callers were quickly reassured. The Weeze volunteer fire brigade also calmed people down on Facebook. “There is no danger“, she wrote early in the morning. Understanding there too. “Thank God. At first you get a fright“Wrote one user. Another took it with biting humor:”We’re awake now, it worked out great“.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, NRW currently has around 6,000 sirens installed, more than 700 more than in mid-2021. The siren – the classic among warning messages – warns of an emergency with a one-minute howling tone that rises and falls again and again. During the state-wide warning day in March, the sirens throughout NRW and the interaction of various warning devices – i.e. warnings via app, loudspeaker announcements or on digital display boards – were tested.