What to do if a siren is sounding

Know the signals

• Learn the signals before you hear them: a test, a warning, an alarm and the end of the alarm each sound different. The full table, with sound samples, is on Alerts and sirens.
• Sirens are tested every month at a fixed time. The test date is on the same page. A siren at any other time is real.
• A siren can be used for several kinds of danger. Whatever the cause, the first step is the same: get inside. If the alert is nuclear, go on to Nuclear alert.
• Know the four alert levels, from yellow to purple, so that you can read an alert message at a glance.

Prepare the phone and the home

• Install the LU-Alert app and check in your phone settings that emergency alerts are switched on. A cell broadcast alert sounds even when the phone is on silent.
• Learn how to switch off the ventilation, the heating and the air conditioning at home and at work.
• Keep wide tape in the kit to seal gaps around windows and vents if you are told to.
• Keep a battery or wind-up radio, a torch and a charged power bank where you can find them in the dark. See the emergency kit checklist.
• Agree with your household that each person shelters where they are, and that nobody drives across town to collect the others. Write it into your household plan.

• Come out only after the end-of-alarm signal or an official message. The same channels that warned you will tell you when it is over.
• Open the windows and switch the heating and ventilation back on only when you are told it is safe to do so.
• If it was the monthly test, check that everyone knows where the radio and the kit are, and that the alert sounded on your phone.
• A siren is frightening. Talking it through afterwards with your household, children included, helps everyone settle again.

Looking after children

• Practise the rule in simple words: "when the siren sounds, we go inside and shut the windows." Children who know the rule are less afraid.
• Do not drive to the school or the crèche. The staff keep the children inside and follow the official instructions.

Older, ill, or living with a disability

• If you are deaf or hard of hearing, you may not hear a siren. Set your phone to vibrate for emergency alerts, and ask a neighbour to knock on your door when one sounds.
• If you need help to shut windows or to move to another room, tell a neighbour now, before anything happens.

With pets

• Bring them inside with you and keep them in. Keep their food and water with yours.

Outdoors or in a car

• Go into the nearest building, even a shop or an office. Ask to come in.
• If there is no building near you, stay in the car with the windows shut and the ventilation off, and switch on the car radio.