Prague – Hundreds of rescuers, firefighters, soldiers and police officers trained a joint reaction to a fictitious terrorist poison attack that “killed” ten people and “wounded” dozens, in the Prague metro at night to Wednesday.
Over 800 people participated in the exercise to test coordination between the rescue system bodies that was the most extensive in the past several years.
The simulated attack, reminding of the attack in the Tokyo metro in the early 1990s, started shortly after 01:00 when “terrorists” broke a glass bottle with sarin, a poisonous substance, on the platform of the Andel metro station in the centre of Prague.
After the bottle was broken, an alarm system for detecting chemical substances like sarin was activated.
For security reasons, rescuers and the Prague Public Transport Company´s staff would not give details about the system´s functioning.
The first firefighter units and ambulances arrived at the spot in several minutes. Shortly afterwards, a number of their vehicles filled the nearby bus station´s area.
Firefighters put on anti chemical clothes and rushed down to the metro station. In the meantime, their colleagues put up a decontamination facility including mobile chemical labs.
After a few dozens of minutes, firefighters started taking first passengers from the underground.
After undergoing the dry decontamination procedure on the spot, buses and ambulances took the passengers to hospitals.
Rescuers´ emergency staff then called in more doctors and secured enough beds for potential patients.
Firefighters also checked the neighbouring metro stations for which several metro trains had departed from the afflicted Andel station, possibly also hit by sarin.
Detectives from the police organised crime squad arrived at the spot as did experts from the military chemical warfare unit seated in Liberec, north Bohemia.
The latter put up a special decontamination tent in the Central Military Hospital complex elsewhere in Prague.
Prague Rescue Service director Zdenek Schwarz expressed satisfaction with the exercise´s course and results.
“I can compare it with [similar exercises] abroad, and I think Prague has nothing to be ashamed of in this respect,” Schwarz said.
The exercise was also welcomed by military Chief-of-Staff Petr Pavel.
“I´m glad that the exercise was held. A similar situation can happed anytime and anywhere,” he said.
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