London tests response to 'inevitable' terror strike

HUNDREDS of British police and emergency workers yesterday staged a major exercise testing their response to a terrorist strike on London, an attack that police believe is inevitable sooner or later.

The simulated chemical attack on the capital's subway system came days ahead of the second anniversary of the September 11 strikes on the United States.

British officials said their long-planned exercise, in the heart of London's financial district, was not in response to a specific threat and that no real chemical agents were being released.

But the scenario was designed to be as realistic as possible, and resembled a 1995 Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway by the Aum Supreme Truth cult, which killed 12 people and injured thousands of others.

Some 500 police, fire and ambulance staff, together with personnel from the London Underground, took part in the exercise. The simulation, which began shortly before midday, involved passengers travelling to Bank station being overcome by an unknown chemical. Their train stopped in a tunnel just before the station, where the line is 400 feet below ground.

Emergency services were ordered to reach police cadets playing the role of casualties, to simulate evacuating them to street level and to decontaminate them in special shower tents.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Times newspaper reported that under government plans, "high-level intelligence" showing an attack was imminent could force a mass evacuation of large parts of the capital.

Fears of a terror strike were raised last January when traces of the deadly toxin ricin were found in a London apartment. According to a press report, the toxin could have been part of a plan to mount an attack on the London subway system.