Manchester’s Trafford Centre, one of the biggest shopping centres in England, is to be used on the evening of Tuesday May 10th to stage a major counter-terrorism exercise when the mall is shut between midnight and 6am.
According to the BBC, the aim of Greater Manchester Police’s simulation (dubbed Winchester Accord) is to test out emergency responses in the event of a terrorist incident, with the exercise to be extended over three days at other locations including Newton-le-Willows’ Redbank Community Home.
Residents have been warned by Assistant Chief Constable Rebekah Sutcliffe that they may hear “loud noises and see emergency services activity around [The] Trafford Centre during the exercise and I can reassure people that there is no cause for concern”.
She went on to add, however, that people should still call the police if they do have any concerns about activity that they believe is unrelated to the exercise.
This comes after it was revealed that workers in towns and cities around the UK will be offered training on how to react if a major incident takes place.
Businesses would be wise to be as prepared as possible – as well as taking part in this kind of training, it would be advisable to look into investing in security window film that can hold the windows of their building together if a bomb or similar goes off in the local area.
Some 90 per cent of injuries in such an incident is caused by flying glass, which is why this kind of window film is so important. To find out more about it, watch this Solartek video which will explain further.
