Hong Kong has reduced its emergency mobile alert activation time from one hour to 15 minutes with a new HK$150 million system.

Hong Kong authorities have slashed the time needed to send emergency mobile alerts to residents from an hour to 15 minutes under a HK$150 million (US$19 million) system, while messages can now be tailored to specific districts, the security chief has revealed. A hearing session into the deadly Wang Fuk Court fire in April had exposed the lengthy time needed to trigger the alert. But security chief Chris Tang Ping-keung on Saturday stopped short of specifying the types of incidents, such as major...