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.
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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.