Terror in the capital...

...but don’t worry, it’s just a simulation to prepare gardaí for attack

THEY are images that would strike fear into the hearts of anybody.

But instead of a deadly attack on the streets of Dublin, they actually depict a sophisticated exercise designed to prime gardaí for a real-life terror attack.

Yesterday’s simulation involved ‘attackers’ targeting people at the Docklands railway station before taking hostages on a train. The operation was partly designed to measure response times for elite Garda units and involved officers reacting to victims of knife attacks and confronting armed terrorists.

It began with a ‘report’ of a car crash at Spencer Dock to which local units were dispatched. The officers then encountered an injured person on the ground, along with other people who had been ‘stabbed’. The gardaí were also told of a report of two attackers – one with a gun and the other with a knife.

The exercise then moved inside the station, before being brought to an end by armed gardaí who detained one of the supposed knife-wielding attackers in the train station and the gunman after he stepped off the train.

Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan said he hoped the exercise would give the public reassurance. ‘While a terrorist attack here may be unlikely, the authorities are in no way complacent in the measures being taken to respond to that threat,’ he said.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar marked the operation by announcing that the first meeting of the new Government Security Committee will be held next week. The committee is designed to ensure more cooperation across departments to manage security threats.

‘Protecting our citizens is of paramount importance to the Government. This involves a significant amount of ongoing work by the gardaí, the Defence Forces and other State agencies,’ Mr Varadkar said.

Currently, the terror threat level here is described as ‘moderate’.

Ready for action: Gardaí arrive at the scene of the incident in central Dublin, where they encounter ‘injured’ people and ‘stabbing’ victims lying on the ground

Foiled: Armed officers storm the station, where knife-wielding ‘attacker’ is wreaking havoc. He is then ‘arrested’ and quickly taken from the scene of the incident

Prepared: A team of officers then bursts into the station, while snipers lie in wait. An armed ‘terror attacker’ who has taken hostages is removed from the train