Monday Civil Defense Sirens: What You Need to Know

The Shenzhen Municipal Government has advised city residents that at 11am Monday September 18, 2017, the city will be conducting a test of their emergency management system by blaring air raid sirens.

The test will last for 15 minutes as the city sounds three variations of civil defense siren sequences. The interval between each alarm is three minutes.

Early Warning Alert: Signifies a likely attack is about to take place. Consists of a 36-second high-tone followed by a 24-second stop time. 3 cycles as a period.

Air Raid Sirens: Signifies an attack is imminent. A 6-second high-tone followed by a 6-second stop time. 15 cycles as a period.

Post Raid Warning: Signifies an end of an attack or a cool-down of the wartime situation. A single 3-minute high-tone as a period.

In past years, the blaring of the sirens have occured on the same day across some 100 Chinese cities to commemorate the start of the Japanese invasion of China. This year marks the 86th anniversary of the event.

Shenzhen Municipal People’s Government Office of emergency management asks that you do not panic when you hear the sirens and to please go about your normal work and life during the test.