Mobile phone users across the country received test messages titled “extremely severe alert” on Saturday as the Union government rolled out a mass broadcast system aimed at alerting people in disaster situations.

The message, which flashed on mobile phones with sharp beeping sounds, read: “India launches Cell Broadcast using indigenous technology, for instant disaster alerting service for its citizens. Alert citizens, safe nation. No action is required by the public upon receipt of this message. This is a test message.”

Union Minister for Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia said that those who received such a message need not panic. He said that the new Disaster Communication System, developed by the Department of Telecommunications along with the National Disaster Management Authority, will now be used “to send near real-time, geo-targeted alerts in multiple languages”.