New safety app with multilingual offline maps to assist people during natural disasters

Tokyo: An app developed by an insurance company in Japan will guide people during natural disasters.

Developed by Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co, the app is targeted at tourists and overseas exchange students, Bangkok Post reported.

Available in English, Chinese and Korean, the app would guide people during natural disasters in Japan to safety.

The multilingual version will provide maps marking nearby evacuation centres that can be accessed even when phones are cut off from the internet.

Users can get directions to the centres by pointing their smartphones' cameras at buildings around them for the application to recognise.

The Insurance Co has reached agreements with seven local authorities across Japan to publicise evacuation centres' locations through the Japanese version of the app.