Lithuania runs nuclear emergency alert drill

VILNIUS – Lithuania conducted on Wednesday a state-level civil protection exercise to test authorities' preparedness to alert the population about a nuclear emergency. 

Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite advised people to check if they had received alert messages on their mobile phones. 

"One of the goals of the exercise is to get people to check if they received the message today. If they didn't, they should find out why and fix the settings," she told reporters after the drill.

At 3 a.m., sirens blared across Lithuania and alert messages were sent out to inform people about the exercise and advise them to turn on LRT Television or LRT Radio for further information. 

According to Saulius Greicius, head of the Fire and Rescue Department, no "big mistakes" were recorded during the exercise, but there were some problems with the information platform.

The exercise involved 16 public bodies and all municipalities. 

The Lithuanian government says Belarus' nuclear power plant in Astravyets, some 50 kilometers from Vilnius, fails to meet international safety and environmental standards, an allegation that Minsk denies.