麻豆社

For 38 minutes the people of Hawaii thought they were about to come under attack from a ballistic missile. People were sent text messages to their mobile phones which said: "Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill."

It transpires the text alert was a mistake, human error. There was no missile.

So what is the alert system in the UK?

Professor John Preston, from the University of Essex, specialises in public preparedness for disasters.
He tells Eddie Mair that if there was a warning of an impending missile strike on TV "people might think it is a hoax as there is no guidance on what such a warning would look like".

(Photo: Electronic sign on road after a false alert said a ballistic missile was headed for Hawaii
Credit: Reuters)