The annual siren test will take place on Wednesday afternoon

The annual siren test will take place throughout Switzerland on Wednesday, 4 February.
 

All the alarm sirens across Switzerland are tested every year, on the first Wednesday in February, and the public is notified about this beforehand through announcements on the radio, on TV and in the press. The general public is not required to respond in any particular way or take protective measures, but is simply requested in advance to excuse the inconvenience caused by the noise of the sirens

According to a statement, the 48 stationary sirens in the canton of Zug will be tested for operational readiness with the ‘general alarm’ signal between 1.30 pm and 2 pm: this is a regular rising and falling wailing tone lasting one minute, and is repeated once after a two-minute interval.

The alarm sirens in the canton are tested every year          Photo: Stefan Kaiser
 

Where necessary, the sirens can continue to be tested until 2 p.m. The "water alert“ signal is tested from 2.15 pm to 3 p.m. (at the latest) in those areas that are close to dams. This consists of twelve low continuous tones lasting twenty seconds and is repeated at ten-second intervals. The function of a total of 7,200 sirens is tested.

The municipal fire brigades will also check the 26 mobile sirens. According to the statement, the population does not need to take any behavioural or protective measures.