South Yorkshire Police practise large emergency exercise at Meadowhall

20 March 2017, 08:36 | Updated: 20 March 2017, 08:38

South Yorkshire police have been carrying out a large emergency exercise at Meadowhall overnight.

It was to test the response of emergency services in case of a terrorist threat.

In the early hours of this morning (Monday 20 March), South Yorkshire Police, along with their partner agencies, conducted a large civil emergencies exercise at Meadowhall.

This was to test the emergency response and preparedness of their blue light services.

This exercise forms part of a national programme of exercises required under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004.

Deputy Chief Constable Mark Roberts said: "This was an extremely positive and useful exercise which tests our collective ability to respond to an emergency on a large scale. In this particular case, we chose to focus on a terrorism incident but this is not in response to a specific threat. The threat level to the UK remains at 'severe' as it has been since August 2014.

"The learning from today's exercise will be fully debriefed and any learning will feed through to our policies, plans and procedures for the future.

"Today's exercise was only possible due to the 856 volunteers who took part. I'd like to take this opportunity to offer my most sincere gratitude to them. They have played a key part in ensuring South Yorkshire remains a safe place to live, learn and work.

"Although this was an exercise, the environment created is as realistic as possible. We saw officers and staff from each of the agencies, and members of the public carry out brave acts to secure the safety of others. It reminded us all why we do the job we do."