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CNN Sunday Morning
Terror Drill in London
Aired September 07, 2003 - 07:23 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Just minutes ago a chemical strike hit the London underground. But don't panic. It is just a drill. British police are staging the mock attack to test their preparedness for a real emergency.
Joining us with more on London's terror drill is Diana Muriel this morning -- Diana, how are you?
DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Heidi.
I'm fine.
This is a very interesting development that's going on at the moment. We've got the mass decontamination tent, the first time that that's been deployed in central London to deal with a simulated chemical attack. That's just gone up. In the next few minutes, we're going to see some of the passengers on this tube train, this underground train that had been trapped at a depth of around 25 meters.
They are police cadets, they're not members of the public, and they will be brought out of the tunnel by members of the London Fire Brigade. They are deploying for the first time some new search and rescue equipment, as well as working in decontamination suits to deal with these injured passengers who have been subjected to a simulated chemical attack.
Some of the passengers won't be able to walk. They'll be brought out on these new aluminum lightweight stretchers that are being used for the first time. They'll be taken through the shower tent and then they'll be taken on to hospital, where they'll be receiving further treatment for their injuries, their simulated injuries. Of course, that will all have to go through the same decontamination procedures.
This is the very first time that we've seen such an exercise taking place on the streets of London. This is the City of London, right by the Bank of England and a tube station which is used by around 160,000 passengers every day. Only about 10,000 use it at the weekend, though, because the heart of the city is very quiet at the weekend, outside of the working week.
It's bringing together all three emergency services, Heidi -- the fire brigade, the ambulance service and the police. And they're all using new equipment and working on a scenario that they haven't actually coordinated before. This is the first time that they've done anything on this scale. Several hundred personnel are involved. We won't get an evaluation of how it's gone, though, until some days, possibly even weeks after this event. But so far things seem to have been going according to plan, other than that the exercise did start about 12 minutes earlier than it was scheduled to, perhaps taking some members of the services by surprise.
But we'll wait to see how that went -- Heidi.
COLLINS: All right, well, you can never be too prepared.
Diana Muriel live from London this morning.
Thanks so much, Diana.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired September 7, 2003 - 07:23 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Just minutes ago a chemical strike hit the London underground. But don't panic. It is just a drill. British police are staging the mock attack to test their preparedness for a real emergency.
Joining us with more on London's terror drill is Diana Muriel this morning -- Diana, how are you?
DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Heidi.
I'm fine.
This is a very interesting development that's going on at the moment. We've got the mass decontamination tent, the first time that that's been deployed in central London to deal with a simulated chemical attack. That's just gone up. In the next few minutes, we're going to see some of the passengers on this tube train, this underground train that had been trapped at a depth of around 25 meters.
They are police cadets, they're not members of the public, and they will be brought out of the tunnel by members of the London Fire Brigade. They are deploying for the first time some new search and rescue equipment, as well as working in decontamination suits to deal with these injured passengers who have been subjected to a simulated chemical attack.
Some of the passengers won't be able to walk. They'll be brought out on these new aluminum lightweight stretchers that are being used for the first time. They'll be taken through the shower tent and then they'll be taken on to hospital, where they'll be receiving further treatment for their injuries, their simulated injuries. Of course, that will all have to go through the same decontamination procedures.
This is the very first time that we've seen such an exercise taking place on the streets of London. This is the City of London, right by the Bank of England and a tube station which is used by around 160,000 passengers every day. Only about 10,000 use it at the weekend, though, because the heart of the city is very quiet at the weekend, outside of the working week.
It's bringing together all three emergency services, Heidi -- the fire brigade, the ambulance service and the police. And they're all using new equipment and working on a scenario that they haven't actually coordinated before. This is the first time that they've done anything on this scale. Several hundred personnel are involved. We won't get an evaluation of how it's gone, though, until some days, possibly even weeks after this event. But so far things seem to have been going according to plan, other than that the exercise did start about 12 minutes earlier than it was scheduled to, perhaps taking some members of the services by surprise.
But we'll wait to see how that went -- Heidi.
COLLINS: All right, well, you can never be too prepared.
Diana Muriel live from London this morning.
Thanks so much, Diana.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
