British security services are staging a major terror response training exercise in central London today and tomorrow. The police assured the public that the exercises, taking place near Covent Garden, are not in response to a specific threat and have been in the works for months as national terror attacks continue internationally.
Today's exercise, involving multiple armed assailants and designed to prepare security services for an attack similar to those in Paris in January or Mumbai in 2008, is taking place outside the abandoned Aldwych underground station. The response to the mock attack involved the Metropolitan Police, fire and ambulance crews as well as soldiers, members of the Home Office, Cabinet Office, Ministry of Defence and Department of Health. Over 14 different organisations and agencies are taking part, police said.
The exercise, named Operation Strong Tower, is the biggest counter-terrorism drill the police have staged and is part of the government's regular National Counter Terrorism Programme of exercises that was developed jointly by the Metropolitan Police and the Home Office.
Actors assist in drills of this type to simulate the most realistic medical and emotional effects of an attack for response crews to manage.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan Howe said: "With events like today we are committing around 1,000 people to exercise our plans and make sure that should the worst happen we are ready. And we will be."
Plans have been in the works for today's exercise since the shootings in Paris in January this year which saw gunmen attack the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket, and the hostage situation in Sydney in December last year. This week's exercise is not directly related to events last week in Tunisia, police said, in which 39 people were killed, at least 30 of whom were British tourists.
The exercise director, deputy assistant commissioner Maxine de Brunner, said: "Testing and exercising is a really important way to ensure that our plans to respond to a major incident or terrorist attack are as good as they can be. We put huge effort into our planning and want to test how we all work together."
The Metropolitan Police said a full debrief will take place following the completion of the exercises on Wednesday afternoon and that local communities and businesses have been kept informed of the structure of the drill.
Although the events will be visible to media and passers by, the police said there should be little disruption caused to the general public.
Next week marks the 10-year anniversary of the 7/7 attacks on the London transport system in which 52 people were killed.
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