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BANGKOK : Thai authorities cancelled tests of 79 tsunami warning towers along its coast over fears they would cause panic among tourists and locals, senior officials said on Sunday.
Thailand, which was hit by deadly waves two years ago, began on Saturday testing the loudspeakers on the towers along the Andaman coast, which had recently been linked up by satellite to a US-funded deep-sea warning buoy deployed in December.
During the test, the beach-front towers were due to broadcast a two-second knocking sound every morning at 9:00 am around the coastline in six provinces.
The test was meant to carry on indefinitely to make sure the system was always working.
But officials called off the operation on Saturday after testing the loudspeakers at just two towers, amid concern that locals and tourists might think a real tsunami was heading to the beach and panic.
Smith Thammararoj, director for Thailand's National Disaster Warning Centre, said the tests were halted because there was a lack of communication between local authorities.
"The test for the two towers worked well," Smith told AFP.
"But the tests at the other towers were cancelled as information had not been delivered well enough to explain to local people and tourists, and if we had carried on the test, it would have scared people."
In the event of a tsunami, the US-funded warning buoy is designed to detect the earthquake which causes the waves and send a warning signal through the satellite to emergency officials and to the coastal towers.
Smith said his centre will meet Monday to discuss plans for the next test, but stressed that it was important to hold them regularly to ensure the system worked.
Some 5,400 people were killed in Thailand, roughly half of them foreign holidaymakers, when a tsunami ripped across the Indian Ocean in December 2004.
The disaster killed 220,000 people around the region.
The test came just days after another tsunami struck the western Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean, killing 34 people and displacing 5,500 others. - AFP/de
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