Sirens will sound across Bulgaria’s major cities at 11am today as the country runs its twice-yearly test of the national early warning system and the BG-Alert mobile emergency network. The public is not required to take any action.

The civil defence siren test, with voice announcements, checks the technical readiness of the country’s warning infrastructure. It is traditionally held on April 1 and October 1 each year, though the 2022 test was cancelled after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to avoid alarming the public.

The BG-Alert test runs from 11am to 11:30am. The system sends warning messages to mobile phones during disasters and emergencies through the mobile operators. To receive the test signal, users must first activate the test channel in their phone settings — in a real emergency, no activation is needed.

Authorities say the test message is received once and comes with a distinctive signal. Fire safety officials stress the system has already been used under real conditions several times this year and worked as expected. Anyone who does not receive the message can report it through the BG-Alert website.