UK test for 'terrifying Armageddon alarm’ gets date

We now know when the UK government will be testing their 'Armageddon alarm', a new public alert system designed to warm Brits about impending disasters they need to be aware of.

Mobile phone users across the UK will be sent a siren-like emergency warning which will leave people unable to do anything else with them until they acknowledge that they've seen the alert.

These alarms are meant to warn members of the public of potential dangers around them which could pose a 'danger to life'.

It is expected that the alert system will primarily be used to warn people about weather-related disasters in their area and the government believes this scheme will be able to reach more than 90 percent of people in the affected zone.

This alarm system is modelled after similar examples used in the US, Canada, Japan and the Netherlands that warns people of disasters such as flooding or wildfires in their area.

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Oliver Dowden, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, praised the new scheme and said it was something which could potentially save the lives of people receiving the alert.

He said: "We are strengthening our national resilience with a new emergency alerts system, to deal with a wide range of threats – from flooding to wildfires.

"It will revolutionise our ability to warn and inform people who are in immediate danger, and help us keep people safe. As we’ve seen in the US and elsewhere, the buzz of a phone can save a life."

Caroline Douglas of the Environment Agency said the ability to get warnings out to the public in a 'timely and accurate manner' was something 'really important to help people take action'.

Thousands of people are set to receive the alarms as part of the British government's Resilience Framework, forcing their phone to vibrate and emit a loud warning noise in addition to blocking them from using the phone to do anything else until they acknowledge the alert.

With such a dramatic reaction as that on the way it would be handy for these thousands of people to know when this herald of Armageddon is headed their way, and useful for others around them not to worry about it.

Sebastian Kaulitzki / Alamy Stock Photo

The date when people can expect their phones to transform into shrieking alarms is 23 April, St George's Day, and the test of the warning system is expected to take place in the early evening of that Sunday.

People who don't want to receive the alerts will be able to opt-out of their phone buzzing to warn them of disaster.

There have already been some tests of this 'Armageddon alert' in East Suffolk and Reading.

The Cabinet Office has said that the warnings are secure one-way communications which will be free to receive and put nobody's personal data at risk.

Alerts sent out will also contain information about the type of threat a person is facing along with instructions about how best to respond to the danger.

In time this alert could be extended to cover terrorist incidents, but officials have admitted they need much more information about how the alarm works before using it for a rapidly developing situation.