July 8, 2008
PHUKET, Thailand (AFP) - Sirens blared Monday across the resort isle of Phuket as Thailand tested its new tsunami warning system meant to prevent a repeat of the 2004 Indian Ocean tragedy.
Sirens on 79 towers across Phuket and in five neighbouring provinces rang out at 9:45 am (0245 GMT), as more than 1,000 tourists, students and emergency workers joined a brief evacuation of Thailand's world-famous beaches.
Ambulances from local hospitals rushed to the shore as medical teams helped mock victims in order to rehearse their response efforts should another tsunami strike.
In Phuket town, 1,000 students and other residents ran to high ground at Saphan Hill park, where emergency workers practised treating them for injuries that could be sustained in a real tsunami.
Air force Colonel Chitipat Phetburananin, head of the National Disaster Warning Centre in Bangkok, said the drill had been a success and praised residents for joining in the exercise.
"The full-scale drill today ended successfully. We are satisfied with the drill. Local people are starting to take a greater role in the planning and training," he told AFP.
Phuket and five nearby seaside provinces were hit by the deadly Indian Ocean tsunami in December 2004, which killed 5,400 people in Thailand alone -- half of them foreign holidaymakers.
A total of 220,000 people in a dozen countries were killed by the tsunami, which was triggered by an undersea earthquake that struck off Indonesia.
Since then, Thailand has installed a high-tech warning system designed to reassure tourists and businesses that the country's beaches are safe.
The coastal towers are linked to the National Disaster Warning Centre, where officials monitor reports of earthquakes while studying data from a US-donated deep-sea buoy that registers changes in the sea level.
