When the alert went off, be honest, did you think the Russia had launched one?

[Tping]

When the alert went off did you, for a fraction of a second, think Vlad had finally snapped and pressed the button?

Disappointing if he had because I if I’d known, I’d have added more loo roll to the Tesco delivery.

Aliens 👽

I suppose it also stops idiots pretending that they ‘didn’t know’ the country is like a bloody tinder box, so more of them can be arrested for setting fire to things ‘accidentally’ ie out of arrogant stupidity and negligence.

I'm in Scotland so didn't get the alarm, but I remember when they did the test one last year and it was whilst I was driving and I honestly nearly crashed the car. I heard of people getting it in the middle of the night as well. I suppose that would mirror an actual emergency but jeez, it's bloody loud.

It did cross my mind that a nuke was on its way so I said cheerio to the dog and hoped our government had launched one in return.

I did for a second, then DH said it was about the fire, so I assumed there was a fire nearby and we were in danger (as in be on high alert or evacuate).

I don’t think they should use alerts like this. It should be for genuine emergencies otherwise people will just start ignoring them.

I assumed it was wildfires, possibly an evacuation warning, based on where I am. However, along with more than 80% of the Welsh population, I had to wait 5 minutes for the English message to come through to find out.
Plaid making a point, regardless of safety, or even coherent Welsh, according to my Welsh speaking friends.

The decision to send it out only in Welsh first was insane. All those poor people absolutely shitting themselves whilst trying to type the message into Google translate with shaky hands. Yes absolutely they need to acknowledge the Welsh language exists and use it but FFS just send the message in English and Welsh at the same time.

No assumed the fires were getting closer.
they are about 15 miles away and our air quality is terrible and the smell is lingering everywhere. Feel so sorry for the firefighters

Completely agree. When it comes to ‘urgent safety alerts’ the priority should be for people to understand the message. They are potentially risking the lives of the majority of the population. So many people have silenced the alerts as a result of the confusion caused last night, it’s pretty disgraceful really.

I panicked for a moment and thought we had been invaded but then realised that happens everyday and it’s not considered an emergency

I never got one so would be up shitcreek if there was a Russian attack.

I also thought my phone was overheating, then thought there was a local fire. Didn't think of attacks - I will next time though.

We were just pulling away in the car when it went off and my first thought was that something was wrong with the car, my second was why is my phone making a funny noise.

Living in a city with a naval nuclear dockyard I thought for a second there was a radiation leak.

No.

I was upstairs and my phone was on charge downstairs and I didn’t hear it! I noticed the message though at about 7.30

Same

I thought an actual fire in my immediate area.

Not a general warning about lighting fires during a drought.

If anyone's going to snap launch a nuclear weapon it's going to be trump anyway.

No I assumed it was about the fires but the panic was caused by receiving the first alert in Welsh and I only recognised the word for ‘fire’ and thought we might have to evacuate.

We were in the pub, I thought it was a fire alarm

I was leaving Tesco and thought they’d left the tag on my gin

It's definitely a design flaw that you can't shut the awful noise up but keep the message to read ! I did the same thing, but DSis couldn't find her phone so it continued on to the spoken message, so we did find out what it was.

I thought it would be something local like river bank risk of flooding or wild fire. My poor dog took off vertically and she can’t even read!

No I thought it was an annoying advert on my phone or that it had been hacked so was relieved. Not sure it gives the wrong people ideas though. I also got it again an hour later annoyingly

For a government alert I expected it to be something of that severity. I have now switched off emergency alerts as I am a responsible citizen and I do not need the government to warn me about heat and wildfires.