Thailand to test disaster alerts after quake criticism
Director General of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) Phasakorn Boonyalak said the Cell Broadcast System (CBS) will undergo a test run next month in localised areas including the sprawling capital, which was badly shaken by the 7.7-magnitude quake in neighbouring Myanmar.
The system will use three mobile networks to send warning messages "quickly and with wide coverage, both on natural disaster and security threats", he told a news conference.
Starting on May 2 with the smallest target area - four city hall buildings - there will be three test runs, with the third and largest drill covering the whole of Bangkok and Chiang Mai provinces on May 13.
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Residents' cellphones will get a pop-up message on their screens in Thai and English, accompanied by a siren, Phasakorn said.
The message will read: "This is a test message from Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, no action required."
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