A new Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) service teaches cellphone users how to carry out cardiopulmonary resuscitation, what to do in a power outage and how to recognize chemical threats, the SCDF said Monday.

The Ready Mobile enables people to download information in video or text format to their 3G phones and follow step-by-step instructions in English, Tamil, Mandarin or Malay.

The aim is to transform the cellphone into a mobile civil-defence reference tool, said Lieutenant-Colonel N Subhas, a SCDF director.

“Singapore has one of the highest mobile-phone penetration rates in the world, so it makes sense to make it easier for people to access information on the go,” he said.

The instructions deal with 15 different emergency situations in all.