Taipei Holds Annual Air Raid Drill During Han Kuang Exercises

Taipei came to a standstill for 30 minutes in the middle of the day as the capital held the annual Wan An civil defense air raid drill.

Transcript

00:00So the siren you're hearing now, that marks the end of the air defence drill here at an

00:06elementary school in the capital Taipei. It's been acting as a disaster response centre.

00:11Here they've been setting up areas where people could sleep, where people can find food and

00:16medical attention. And in one of the underground classrooms there's an air raid shelter where

00:21people could shelter from an attack from above. It's all part of the annual Wan An drills

00:28which today have brought much of northern Taiwan to a standstill. On hearing the siren

00:34and getting a notification on your phone, people, millions of people across northern

00:38Taiwan have had to stop what they're doing and seek shelter. If you're driving your car

00:42you have to pull over safely at the side of the road and go inside. If you're on the street

00:46you have to find a place to hide. And the emergency services, the police and firemen

00:53have been directing people to the thousands of air raid shelters that are around the city.

01:00And the city's mayor, Zhang Wan An, he's just been here at this disaster response centre.

01:04He's been overseeing what sort of preparations his city is putting in place to respond to

01:10an air raid. So why is all of this happening? Well of course it's in response to China which

01:15claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has been upping its threats to take the country

01:20by force. Taiwan of course has been upping its defence spending, its lengthened conscription,

01:26all to face that China threat and also it's been doing more of exercises like this to

01:31prepare the country for the possibility of war.