Emergency Services test terror attack response in London

The Metropolitan Police, emergency services and statutory partners have held a major live-play exercise to test the joint response to a major terrorist incident.

Exercise Crystal Peak took place over two days and involved more than 200 people including emergency responders from blue-light services, specialist counter terrorism officers, partners from the London Resilience Forum and volunteers.

The exercise was part of regular testing and exercising programming and was not in response to any specific threat or intelligence.

The scenario involved an improvised explosive device at a fictional music concert in a stadium and took place at a disused terminal building at Heathrow airport, which has previously been used for counter terrorism exercises.

Commander Ade Adelekan said: “Whilst the exercise was not designed with any specific threat in mind, sadly, previous attacks such as those we’ve seen in Manchester and Paris show that this kind of scenario at a busy entertainment venue is a real possibility.

“Exercises like this test how our blue-light services respond to this type of incident, ensure the plans we have in place are fit for purpose, and identify where we might improve. It also gives our officers and staff invaluable experience to respond in a live-play scenario under pressure with real sights, sounds and smells, so that they are in the best position to respond effectively should the worst ever happen for real.”

Image by John Higgitt from Pixabay