A MOCK terrorism attack in Kangaroo Flat put emergency response agencies to the test yesterday.
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Representatives from Victoria Police, Ambulance Victoria, State Emergency Service and Country Fire Authority met at the Kangaroo Flat Leisure Centre for the training exercise yesterday morning.
The training scenario simulated a real-life situation and was designed to measure emergency response co-ordination between the different emergency services.
The mock terrorism attack involved a public bus full of passengers and a cyanide-based package.
Bendigo students put their acting skills to the test, playing the part of chemical-affected passengers who spilled out of the bus.
Police cordoned off the area while CFA personnel in specialised suits and breathing apparatus checked the dead, dying and injured.
Sergeant Mick McCrann from Bendigo police said the initiative would be evaluated in a number of different ways.
“We have our own assessors in place,” he said. “We have some multi-agency assessors, so people who will oversee the entire response, and we’ve also got a number of students here as well who are recording from different points of view, from their perspective, as to how the exercise goes.
“We’ll evaluate those at the end.”
Sergeant McCrann said the exercise was very important.
“The information we get out of today will be used in our training, it will determine how we respond in future,” he said.
“What we’re looking to do is see what systems are in place, how well they work and then establish if there a better way of doing things.
“It’s the first multi-agency one that’s been done in a long time and I guess that the focus these days is on terrorism and the possibilities of what can happen. We just need to be prepared for that.
“We’ve already got systems in place ongoing. Really this is just a health check as to how we’re travelling.”
A similar exercise was held simultaneously at Mildura.