Nicosia, Cyprus. Civil defence said several factors may have prevented some mobile phone users from receiving Monday’s nationwide CY-Alert test notification, after thousands of devices received a simulated missing person alert during the exercise.
The test message was sent at around 3.10pm and concerned a fictional kidnapping and missing person scenario.
Test message and technical issue
Civil defence spokesperson Panayiotis Liasides told Omega that the exercise was largely successful, with a minor technical issue affecting the first message.
He said the first message contained a problem with the questionnaire link, prompting authorities to send a second message in which the link worked normally.
Reasons some users did not receive the alert
Liasides said some people may not have received the notification because they had no signal, their phones were in flight mode, or their devices were turned off.
He urged users to check their device settings, ensure their software is updated and restart their phones if necessary.
Public guidance
Civil defence said instructions for activating emergency alerts are available on the CY-Alert website.
It also reminded the public that support is available through the information line 1450.
