4:13am UK, Monday September 08, 2003

Hundreds of police and emergency services personnel have responded to a simulated terrorist strike on London.

London mock chemical attack

The exercise involved passengers on a Tube train from Waterloo station to Bank station being overcome by an unknown chemical.

Victims of the terror 'attack' went through a rigorous decontamination process on the streets and at hospital - surrounded by police and hospital staff in full protective gear.

Many patients were rushed to the accident and emergency department at University College Hospital, central London, which closed its doors for three hours during the operation.

But the exercise was hampered by delays at the scene, with patients arriving in dribs and drabs more than an hour and a half after the 'incident'.

London Fire Brigade senior divisional officer Andrew Hickmott said: "There were a mixture of casualties in this simulation.

"We had everything from fatalities to people mildly affected and shocked. It was a deliberate part of the exercise to get as many different types of casualties as possible."

The scenario - designed to be as realistic as possible - closely parallels 1995's sarin gas attack on the Tokyo underground by the Aum Shrinrikyo religious cult.

The attack killed 12 people and left thousands more sick.

The simulation was the first time such a large-scale exercise has taken place in the city post-September 11 and the first time the Government's new mass decontamination units have been seen in public.

Minister for London Nick Raynsford said: "London has faced many challenges and threats in the 2,000 years of its history, not least in the last 30 years.

"We have had to be prepared for all new threats that emerge."

The power failure which recently crippled London's rush-hour traffic showed "there are always new lessons to be learned", he said.

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.

A Tube driver reported the 'incident' to the London Underground control room and the train stopped in the tunnel just before the platform at Bank, 400ft below ground.

The emergency services were then 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.