An automatic alert system has been developed at the Friuli-Venezia Giulia seismic network (NE Italy) able to notify rescue organisations and scientific institutions the hypocenter coordinates and magnitude of local or close earthquakes in real-time. The system architecture has been structured into three main functional modules devoted to: data analysis, alert decision making and final result communication. A number of signal processing tasks are performed to evaluate focal parameters and conditions for alerting, among which, an original S-picking technique effective in improving localisation of earthquakes occurring up to 200 km from the centre of the network. A composite communication strategy has been implemented, which takes into account different alert levels, communication modalities (e-mail, fax and WWW pages) and receiver classes (including both human beings and remote software modules ), and comprises also the ability to send updates as new data are acquired. Finally, the system supports the revision and refinement of the analysis by the seismologist through a graphical interface.