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London in terror attack exercise
LONDON, England -- London emergency services have staged a mock chemical weapons attack on a subway train below London's financial district in an effort to test the city's ability to deal with a terrorist strike. In the drill, which lasted several hours Sunday, emergency crews donned protective suits to rescue "casualties'' trapped in a train stopped in a Underground tunnel near Bank station. It was the first time a large-scale exercise had taken place in London since the September 11, 2001 terrorists attacks in the United States. It was also the first time new decontamination units will be seen in public. However the Department of Transport said the test was not being held in response to any specific threat. "Most people realize that we live in extremely dangerous times. We've got to prepare against all sorts of eventualities, Transport Secretary Alistair Darling told Sky News. "I am afraid we live in the sort of a world where an attack on London can't be ruled out." Britain's top police officer, John Stevens, said last week the country faced a threat from suicide bombers and that London authorities were on its "highest level of alert'' for any attack. The "realistic" scenario closely paralleled 1995's sarin gas attack on the Tokyo underground by the Aum Shrinrikyo religious cult, which killed 12 people and affected thousands more. Officials have stressed that the exercise was not in response to a specific threat and that no real chemical agents would be released on the Waterloo and City line train. The simulation involved passengers on a train from Waterloo station to Bank station being overcome by an unknown chemical. The tube driver reported the incident to the London Underground control room and the train stopped in the tunnel just before the platform at Bank, where the line is 120 meters below ground. The emergency services were required to reach the "casualties", evacuate them to street level and decontaminate them in special shower tents. The incident involved about 500 police, fire, ambulance and London Underground personnel, with a cordon being thrown around a number of streets. Roads around Bank station were closed until the drill ended at about 4:30 p.m. (1530 GMT). CNN Correspondent Diana Muriel said hundreds of exercises were carried out in Britain, but very few were in the public eye. "The fact that this was one was carried out in the runup to the second anniversary of the September 11 attacks makes it all the more poignant," she said.
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