A major exercise to test the effectiveness of London's security response in the event of a terrorist attack on the underground network during the Olympic Games took place today in central London. Today and tomorrow, Aldwych tube station in Surrey Street will be hosting a terrorist simulation with the participation of around 2,500 people. Transport for London (TfL) will be taking part in the two-day exercise, known as “Forward defensive”, with the co-operation of the Metropolitan Police and the Home Office.
Emergency services, cabinet ministers, London underground staff and the Met Police are acting as though it is August 8 and 9, the days when more visitors are expected in London for the Games. “Forward defensive” aims to test the response to a terrorist incident on the tube network during the Olympics.
The first part of the simulation, which forms part of the Government’s regular National Counter-terrorism Exercise Programme, is being carried in Aldwych underground station (called Oxford Circus for this exercise). Tomorrow a second exercise will also take place in the same location.
The national Olympic security co-ordinator, assistant commissioner Chris Allison, said that “testing and exercising is vital to getting our safety and security operations for the Games right”. “We need to be confident that we have the right people in the right places, that we understand how others operate and that we are talking to each other at the right levels and in the right way”, he added.
Around 2,500 people are involved in the terrorist mock, which is “the first with such a significant response from the emergency services on the ground”, Mr. Allison stated.
Fears that a possible terrorist attack will take place during the Games have increased in London. Last week the Met Police and the Home Office said that Waltham Forest Council, which will host a section of the Olympic Park and a visitor campsite, faced a “high-level of Al-Qaeda inspired extremism”.
The Prevent plan aims to achieve the best security response against a terrorist incident in the capital, such as the July 7 bombings in 2005, a series of co-ordinated suicide attacks where 52 people were killed and over 700 more were injured.
“We will be doing out very best to prevent such an attack but it would only be right that we test our response to such an attack”, Cressida Dick, Specialist Operations assistant commissioner, said.
A major military test exercise will also take place in May as a part of a series of “table-top” exercises of security planning.
Reporting by By Paula Planelles Manzanaro Images by Natalie Mitrides
