An air raid siren set off Friday as part of a drill in central Delhi’s ITO perked many an ear in the vicinity and jolted a few out of their afternoon torpor. The civil defence directorate tested an air raid siren installed atop the multistorey PWD building in ITO for 10 to 15 minutes. Many in the neighbourhood said they had heard it for the first time.
“Around 3 pm, we heard a loud sound, which gradually became feeble. Although since yesterday I have been seeing videos of sirens being blared in places where attacks happened, hearing it for real was a first-time experience,” Namantullah, 21, who has a shop near the building, said.
“My grandfather used to tell me about the Kargil War or the 1971 Indo-Pak war. We could not grasp the ominousness of it because we weren’t there. These sirens, though only a test, made it all too real,” he added.
Gaurav Gupta, 45, another shopkeeper, said that while the siren wasn’t as loud as he had expected, it helped him understand what to do when an emergency strikes. If god forbids something happens, we have a metro nearby and also a big mosque where we can rush to take shelter. As citizens, it is our duty to support our armed forces and act responsibly without creating panic,” Gupta said.
Police and civil defence volunteers briefed people on the steps they must take when an air raid siren is sounded. A PCR van of the Delhi Traffic Police was stationed on the road to regulate the traffic in case people panicked because of the siren.
“Rush to the safest place you can find, preferably under the tables or in the basement of a building. One should come on their knees or lie on the ground with their hands covering their ears so that the sound doesn’t make you uncomfortable,” a civil defence volunteer said. She advised people against taking shelter under the trees as they can fall on them.
