Overview
- Shortly after 22:00 on Saturday, all Halle sirens sounded with an English voice saying, “Active shooter. Lockdown now.”
- The city says the alarm was not triggered by local, state, or federal authorities and now considers unauthorized access highly probable.
- Police have launched inquiries while technical checks continue to determine whether the cause was a hack, human intervention, or equipment failure.
- No Katwarn message was sent to residents’ phones, adding to confusion during the incident.
- Past cases in Troisdorf and Dallas show legacy siren networks can be illicitly activated, and the spoken message in Halle may indicate more complex manipulation pending confirmation.