NARU is running the National Ambulance Coordination Centre today as part of Exercise Strong Tower.
We are coordinating the provision of national ambulance mutual aid and allocation of specialist national assets for the exercise play.
The simulation of a terror attack has been six months in the planning. The exercise – codenamed Strong Tower – involves 1,000 police officers at locations across the capital until Wednesday afternoon.
Other agencies involved in the two-day operation include London Fire Brigade, London Ambulance Service, Transport For London, the NHS and a string of government departments who will face tests of their decision-making and crisis-management skills.
Emergency services are under a legal duty to test their preparedness for all manner of crises from terrorism attacks to flooding. Many counter-terrorism training exercises take place out of view around the country and the last comparable exercise of this nature was in London was in 2012.
You can follow the action live via the hashtag #999exercise, and also view footage from Sky News and the BBC.