People spot Welsh language error on UK Government emergency phone alert

People in Wales spotted a Welsh language mistake in the emergency text message sent out yesterday by the UK Government.

The message read "yn Vogel" despite the fact there is no "v" in the Welsh alphabet.

Instead, it should have read "yn ddiogel", meaning "safe."

It was the first emergency alert sent by the UK Government as a test, designed to warn the public about life-threatening situations such as flooding.

At 3pm on Sunday people across the UK received a notification on their phones, as well as hearing a siren noise for 10 seconds.

But people in Wales, whose alert included the warning in both languages, spotted the error.

Meaning nothing in Welsh, "vogel" is in fact the name a Slovenian ski resort, as well as meaning "bird" in both German and Dutch.

Meanwhile, there were complaints from people across the UK that they did not get the alert at all.

Others said they received the alert a minute or so early.

A review will be conducted to find out why a “very small proportion of mobile users” did not receive the notification, which sounded at 3pm on devices using 4G and 5G networks in the UK.

In response to the error in the Welsh language message, a UK Government spokesperson said: "A technical error caused one word in the Welsh language version of the emergency test alert to be misspelt. The fact that this occurred in a test alert will mean we can rectify it in future."

Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know