On Wednesday, Lithuania conducted a state-level civil protection exercise to test authorities' preparedness to alert the population about a nuclear emergency.
Interior Minister Agnė Bilotaitė 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 15:00, sirens blared across Lithuania and alert messages were sent out to inform people about the exercise and advise them to turn on LRT TV or LRT RADIO for further information.
According to Saulius Greičius, head of the Fire and Rescue Department, no "big mistakes" were recorded during the drills, but there were some problems with the information platform.

Read more: Lithuania plans to hold evacuation drills after Belarus launches nuclear plant
The exercise involved 16 public organisations 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.
The country has previously held ‘Astravyets drills’ to prepare for nuclear emergencies.
Read more: Lithuanians stage mock evacuations to train for nuclear accident – photos




