BRITAIN:A simulated chemical attack on London yesterday gave a stark view of the scenes the British capital might face in the event of a terrorist strike. As the fictitious chemical attack on the Underground took place in the financial centre of the city, hundreds of emergency services officers in full protective clothing appeared on the streets.
It wasn't long before decontamination units were set up on ground level and the immediate area around the strike - the so-called "Hot Zone" - sealed off as scores of "casualties" were treated on the streets of the Square Mile.
The long-planned role play was similar to the terrorist attack which hit the Tokyo tube in 1995, when deadly sarin gas was released, killing 12 people, leaving thousands seriously ill and bringing chaos to the streets of the Japanese capital.
Mr Nick Raynsford, Minister for Civil Resilience, said: "Our early view at the end of the exercise is that the elements that we have planned to test have worked well. There will always be room for improvement following an exercise of this kind and we will certainly make full use of the lessons learned to enhance London resilience."
The operation began at exactly 11.48 a.m. with 500 officers from the three emergency services swinging into action in response to an "attack" on an Underground train.
The Waterloo and City Line service had set off from Bank station but shuddered to a halt 50 yards into the tunnel beginning the exercise.
The Bank of England, the London Stock Exchange and the official residence of the Lord Mayor of London, the Mansion House, were all within walking distance of the area where 350,000 people work during any given week-day.
The first police vehicles arrived approximately six minutes after the exercise had begun, although organisers pointed out that today's simulation was not a test of response times.
The simulation, they said, could not hope to be realistic on response times because of light Sunday traffic and because officers had been told to operate under exercise conditions.