• An illustration by the UK government informs residents of an upcoming alert they will receive on their phones as the government tests a new alert system. (@cabinetofficeuk/Twitter)

A new emergency alert service was tested for the first time in the UK on Sunday.

The new system alerted millions of phones in Britain by emitting a loud alarm and vibrating. The emergency service follows the strategies of preceding systems trialed in Canada, the US, Japan, and the Netherlands that intend to warn residents of impending threats such as floods or fires.

The service was launched at 2:00 PM GMT with some users receiving delayed or earlier-than-schedule alerts, while others said they were not alerted.

A message that read "This is a test of Emergency Alerts, a new UK government service that will warn you if there's a life-threatening emergency nearby," accompanied the alarm.

Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden before the trial said, "Keep Calm and Carry On. That is the British way and it is exactly what the country will do when they receive this test alert at 3:00 pm today."

He added, "The government's number-one job is to keep people safe and this is another tool in the toolkit for emergency situations."

Alarms went off in Premier League matches, while organizers of the World Snooker Championship paused games during the period of the alert.

Unnecessary and intrusive system

Conservatives in Britain have been critical of the new system which they described as unnecessary and intrusive. Former Minister Jacob Rees-Morgan urged residents to switch off the alert in defiance of the new policy.

"It is back to the nanny state; warning us, telling us, mollycoddling us when instead they should just let people get on with their lives," he said.

Sarah Vine, a Daily Mail columnist and divorcee of Minister Michael Gove, described the process as "terrifying".

She wrote, "The government intends to rattle our collective cages by invading our mobile phones, and our privacy, with its absurd emergency test signal. The notion is as terrifying as it is tiresome."

She further explained, "Terrifying because it's a reminder of the tyranny imposed on all of us by the technology that has invaded our homes like Japanese knotweed, infiltrating every aspect of our daily lives."

Dowden attempted to disregard privacy and intrusion concerns saying, "All people need to do is swipe away the message or click 'OK'".

The Deputy Prime Minister claimed, "The test is secure, free to receive and one-way, and does not reveal anyone's location or collect personal data."

MPs were also critical of the government's decision to assign the contract for the new procedure to a Japanese firm, Fujitsu, who have previously produced faulty software used at the Post Office system in the UK.