Taipei carried out an air raid drill on Thursday afternoon, suspending all outdoor activities in the city for thirty minutes. The event is part of "urban resilience" drills held across the nation in recent days in conjunction with the annual Han Kuang military exercises.
00:00Taipei has just simulated a Chinese air attack with a half-hour air raid drill forcing residents off the streets.
00:07It's part of a series of urban resilience drills being held across the country this week.
00:11Our reporter Sandy Chi is on the ground with the military in Taipei.
00:15Sandy, tell us what just happened with this drill.
00:20So, a 30-minute air raid drill has just ended in Taipei.
00:24From 1.30 to 2 o'clock, operations have been suspended at public and private venues, and the streets were completely empty.
00:32And our drivers had to get out of their vehicles and seek shelter, and pedestrians had to avoid walking around the streets during that time.
00:40Now, this is a highly orchestrated drill that happens every year.
00:43I myself got an alert at 1.30 telling me to seek shelter, and such drills have already been carried out across Taiwan over the past two days.
00:51This is all part of the annual Hanguang military drills that aims to prepare the public and also the military in case of an emergency, such as attack from China.
01:02And now, what makes this year so significant is that it's not pre-scripted like before.
01:08It combines the Wan An drills and also the Ming An Disaster Relief Drills.
01:13And for people in Songshan District, the residents were guided into air raid shelters, simulating what they would do in case of an emergency.
01:20So, there have been air raid drills. What else is this exercise simulating?
01:29So, currently I'm outside a stadium in Taipei, where the government is practicing the distribution of essentials to the public.
01:37And selected civilians can come in and purchase them in case of an emergency.
01:41The items include oil, rice, and salt.
01:43And now, this is very important because if there is an emergency, these supplies are likely to get cut off.
01:49So, people need to keep them in stock.
01:52Now, today is all just practice.
01:54In a real emergency, the government is likely to provide them for free.
01:58So, today, other than this practice, there will also be other exercises, such as first aid training and also disaster shelter and relief operations in other areas of Taipei.
