Seoul City and Twitter Korea are working together to establish an online disaster information system using the city’s various accounts on the micro-blog service.

Twitter Lifeline will provide real-time alerts, guidance and up-to-date news and information to citizens during an emergency, and people can also post notifications of their whereabouts and status through their smartphones, the city said.

The two sides signed an agreement for the project on Wednesday.

It will help authorities’ response and rescue efforts by coordinating information from various sites registered with the system. Seoul is the second to use the Twitter Lifeline system after Japan.

The city administration’s 20 Twitter accounts will serve as the Lifeline channels and other related organizations, such as Seoul Metro, will join later, the city said.

(rene@heraldcorp.com)