Thousands of people across Cyprus received a test message on their mobile phones on Monday afternoon through the CY-Alert early warning system.
The notification was sent at around 3.10pm as part of a scheduled trial announced by the Civil Defence Force, aimed at checking how the system operates under real conditions.
Authorities had made clear in advance that the alert was not connected to any real incident and that members of the public did not need to take any action. Civil Defence also said the test notification would not include the distinctive loud warning sound used in cases of actual danger, in order to avoid causing unnecessary concern.
The alert appeared on mobile phone screens under the title “Kidnapping - Missing Person” and included the notice “TEST - TEST - TEST”, making clear that it was an exercise and not a real case.
The message stated that recipients were receiving the notification as part of testing for the CY-Alert early warning system and that no action was required, as there was no danger.
CY-Alert is Cyprus’ national early warning system for the public and is used to send urgent information to citizens in cases of natural disasters, extreme weather, industrial accidents, fires or other serious threats to public safety.
However, it appears that some technical problems remain unresolved, as several users reported that they were unable to access the page after clicking on the link included in the alert.
