Siren breakdown: NRW city warns the population of great danger – but that was a mistake

Created: 08/04/2022, 20:29

By: Mick Oberbusch

The sirens wailed in Cologne at midday on August 4th – a false alarm (symbol image).

© Rolf Vennenbernd/dpa

Sirens warned of a danger to the population in Cologne on Thursday.

But that was a glitch - the city administration is now explaining the background.

Cologne – Many Cologne residents were clearly shocked when the sirens suddenly wailed throughout the city on Thursday morning (4 August) at noon.

Although the city of Cologne reported a false alarm a short time later and thus the all-clear, many people still wondered how such a siren breakdown could have happened in the current times.

Siren false alarm in Cologne - "routine maintenance work"

When asked by 24RHEIN, the city gave the reason for the involuntary howl of sirens at noon.

"Routine maintenance work is currently being carried out on the Cologne fire brigade's alarm system.

All sirens in the city of Cologne were triggered," said a spokeswoman.

As a result, the city's website was temporarily unavailable.

Here they are working on the problem that can arise due to mass access in order to find a solution.

False alarm worries people in Cologne – the control center is also manned

However, according to the city, it is not possible to reliably state how many people actually called.

"However, so many calls were received that the control center was also manned for a period of 15 minutes in order to be able to deal with the inquiries," said the city.

The sirens are distributed throughout the city in such a way that residents in areas with an increased number of chemical industries can be alerted by the sirens.

Sirens are wailing over Cologne – mistakes cannot always be avoided

According to the city, the sirens are "a complex technical system in which several alarm systems are operated and controlled in parallel (NINA, CLIP display, mail traffic, etc.).

All technicians work with the utmost care.” Nevertheless, a fault cannot be avoided with 100% certainty.