Awkward moment BBC newsreader’s interview interrupted by emergency alert test live on air

Broadcaster then cuts to ‘live shots now up and down the country’ showing people largely unperturbed by alert

A BBC newsreader was forced to contend with the government’s 10-second emergency alert test going off early mid-interview.

Text messages were sent to millions of 4G and 5G mobile phones at 3pm on Sunday, prompting an alert to appear on the screen and an alarm to sound, in a trial intended to be used to warn people of local and national risks such as flooding or terror attacks.

While millions received the alert, many did not, while others were jarred to hear the alarm sound either 10 minutes too late or slightly too early.

The latter situation appeared to befall BBC News journalist Richard Preston as he was discussing the test with the chief of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, Loretta Hieber Girardet.

The presenter – who had asked Ms Girardet whether she thought the goverment had done a sufficient job of advertising the test and its purpose – gave a wry smile to viewers as he heard the alarm sound and reached down to his side as if to check whether it was emanating from his own device.

Ms Girardet appeared to be oblivious to the alarm going off in the studio, as she said over videolink: “There really is a very critical reason to invest in this type of technology and I applaud the British government’s attempt.

“And of course the media also plays an important role in sensitising the public and explaining ...”

But she was cut off by the newsreader, who said: “Loretta, let me just interrupt you there. We’ve heard the alert going off as you’ve been speaking.”

As the presenter redirected viewers to “live shots now up and down the country of people receiving this alert”, those watching were met with shots of largely unperturbed shoppers mulling around Glasgow’s Buchanan Street as normal.

One camera in Bristol did appear to show nearly all of the dozen or so people checking their phones.

But another live clip from outside the waterfront Mermaid Quay shopping centre in Cardiff gave scant evidence of people receiving the alert, while the audio feed overlaying the three clips picked up no change in the general hum of background chatter and laughter.

It was unclear whether or not the clip would make satisfactory viewing for government ministers, appearing to conform to deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden’s calls for Britons to “keep calm and carry on” – while perhaps raising questions over why so many appeared not to notice the alert at all.

The Cabinet Office said it would be reviewing the outcome of the UK-wide test, adding that, while the vast majority of compatible phones received the alert, the review would look at why a “very small proportion of mobile users on some networks did not receive it”.

“We have effectively completed the test of the UK-wide Emergency Alerts system, the biggest public communications exercise of its kind ever done,” a government spokesperson said. “We are working with mobile network operators to review the outcome and any lessons learned.”

Outside of the BBC cameras’ reach, reactions to the test appeared to be varied, with journalist Elizabeth Day tweeting from a train that “there was a polite smattering of applause after it ended because we’re British and therefore totally insane”.

However, another person reported “different vibes” on the train they were on, with one passenger claimed to have shouted “f*** the government”. It comes after fact-checkers were forced to debunk a number of conspiracy theories about the alert.