Their noise is known to all Ile-de-France residents: warning sirens which resonate every first Wednesday of the month will change slot this May 1st. Indeed, exceptionally, it is not not Wednesday, but Thursday May 2, that the inhabitants of Île-de-France will hear them resound.
A rare discrepancy, due to the fact that this year, Labor Day and its public holiday fall on a Wednesday, remind our colleagues at -. This had already happened on Wednesday November 1, 2023, where, due to All Saints’ Day, the sirens had been postponed until the following week.
But where does this practice come from, and what is it for? Established after the Second World War, then generalized at the end of the Cold War, the population alert and information system (SAIP) is simply intended to regularly check whether the warning sirens are working for use in an emergency. Previously, the tocsin was used to sound the alert in the event of an attack, explains the Ministry of the Interior.
The exercise lasts 1 minute 41 seconds, the ideal time to turn the system on, so everyone can hear it, then turn it off. Its cycle can vary depending on the type of alert: for example, it can be used to warn the population in the event of a natural disaster.
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