Thousands of people came together on Monday to carry out the biggest emergency training drill Europe has ever seen.
BBC News
Exercise Unified Response (EUR), organised by the London Fire Brigade, is taking place at four separate locations for four days and is challenging over 4,000 participants to work together to deal with a staged civil disaster involving "mass casualties."
One of the locations is a disused power station in the town of Dartford, where they are simulating a huge building collapsing on a mock-up of London Waterloo.
The scene emergency services are confronted with in exercise #UnifiedResponse. Working together to help save lives. pic.twitter.com/1dg2swhRpD
- NPCC (@PoliceChiefs) February 29, 2016
Emergency responders from the police, ambulance service, Transport for London (TFL), and various other groups from across the country are working together to practice a co-ordinated response to a high-profile emergency situation.
These groups have also been joined by firefighters from Hungary, Cyprus, and Italy who have traveled to Kent to receive expert training in skills needed to deal with a large-scale emergency.
Casualties being Treated and removed at exercise #UnifiedResponse with @LondonFire 1/2 pic.twitter.com/YY2KgWt0xC
- LondonAmbulance HART (@LAS_HART) February 29, 2016
London Fire commissioner Ron Dobson told the BBC:
"You can't get this sort of experience from a textbook. We need to play it like it's real and ensure that should the worst happen, our response is effective and well-co-ordinated."
Internal scenes at Ex #UnifiedResponse as multi-agency rescue phase underway. Organisations working together #jesip pic.twitter.com/WvNE6xM7yf
- Helen Turner (@hellturn) February 29, 2016
Dobson added that the participating teams' response would be "rigorously observed" by independent evaluators so lessons can be learned from the exercise.
More than 70 "partner agencies" such as local councils and utility companies are also taking part, as are disaster victim identification teams from countries across Europe.
Steady flow of casualties arriving at the casualty clearing station #UnifiedResponse #Exercise pic.twitter.com/qjrfVhcqAf
- Joint Response Units (@LAS_JRU) February 29, 2016
"The noise was deafening: screaming, banging, shouting. Volunteers pretending to be passengers trapped in a smashed tube carriage deep below Waterloo Station were desperately trying to attract the attention of the first police and fire fighters on the scene. It looked and sounded pretty convincing. The London Fire Brigade has gone to considerable lengths to make its biggest-ever disaster exercise look and feel realistic."
Trapped and awaiting rescue and treatment #UnifiedResponse pic.twitter.com/GqwvrYqftf
- Joint Response Units (@LAS_JRU) February 29, 2016