PARIS (AP) - This much is known: The attack is to begin at
midnight, when terrorists release deadly gas into the Paris subway.
What's not so clear is whether France's security and rescue
services are fully ready to respond. In an anti-terrorism exercise
overnight Wednesday to Thursday, they'll find out.
In the simulated attack near the Foreign Ministry, police said
500 emergency services agents will be asked to pretend that
terrorists have released sarin gas into the subway.
Sarin, a deadly nerve agent developed by the Nazis in World War
II, was used in a 1995 attack on the Tokyo subway by doomsday cult
Aum Shinri Kyo that killed 12 people and sickened thousands.
It was one of the worst acts of urban terrorism until the Sept.
11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
The fake chemical attack being staged in Paris will target the
Invalides Metro and suburban train station. Tourists may know it:
The station on the Seine's left bank is close to Les Invalides, a
gold-domed former hospital that houses Napoleon Bonaparte's tomb.
Pretend "victims" will be treated and decontaminated in
special tents erected on a park next to the station, police
officials said. In summer, Parisians flock to that park to sunbathe
and play soccer. The station and park will be closed for the
duration of the exercise, which is expected to last a maximum of
five hours, ending before dawn Thursday.
Officials are not releasing many details: They said they wanted
to keep an element of surprise that would make the exercise more
realistic for the fire, police, hospital and other officials who
will rush to the scene.
Police stressed that the simulation, which has been planned for
months, was not being carried out because of a specific threat.
Rather, it is designed to test plans prepared over the past two
years for dealing with terror attacks involving nuclear, chemical
or biological weapons.
The exercise, the first of its kind in the French capital, comes
less than a week after France reduced its terror alert status to
the lowest level, signaling that the risk of attacks has receded.
But officials and experts say France needs to remain on guard.
Last December, French authorities dismantled what they said was
a terror cell with ties to Chechen rebels and al-Qaida that planned
bomb or toxic gas attacks in France and Russia.
"It's about time we had one of these exercises," said Francois
Heisbourg, director of the Foundation for Strategic Research
think-tank. While France has proved itself capable of coping with
natural disasters, it has not had to face terror attacks with mass
destruction weapons.
"It's one thing to be technically well prepared ... It's
another to be operating in an urban environment, in very confined
spaces, having to worry about people and traffic," Heisbourg said
in a phone interview.
Police in London underwent a similar exercise on the Underground
there in September, decontaminating scores of "casualties" from a
simulated chemical weapons attack.
APTV 10-22-03 0207EDT
midnight, when terrorists release deadly gas into the Paris subway.
What's not so clear is whether France's security and rescue
services are fully ready to respond. In an anti-terrorism exercise
overnight Wednesday to Thursday, they'll find out.
In the simulated attack near the Foreign Ministry, police said
500 emergency services agents will be asked to pretend that
terrorists have released sarin gas into the subway.
Sarin, a deadly nerve agent developed by the Nazis in World War
II, was used in a 1995 attack on the Tokyo subway by doomsday cult
Aum Shinri Kyo that killed 12 people and sickened thousands.
It was one of the worst acts of urban terrorism until the Sept.
11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
The fake chemical attack being staged in Paris will target the
Invalides Metro and suburban train station. Tourists may know it:
The station on the Seine's left bank is close to Les Invalides, a
gold-domed former hospital that houses Napoleon Bonaparte's tomb.
Pretend "victims" will be treated and decontaminated in
special tents erected on a park next to the station, police
officials said. In summer, Parisians flock to that park to sunbathe
and play soccer. The station and park will be closed for the
duration of the exercise, which is expected to last a maximum of
five hours, ending before dawn Thursday.
Officials are not releasing many details: They said they wanted
to keep an element of surprise that would make the exercise more
realistic for the fire, police, hospital and other officials who
will rush to the scene.
Police stressed that the simulation, which has been planned for
months, was not being carried out because of a specific threat.
Rather, it is designed to test plans prepared over the past two
years for dealing with terror attacks involving nuclear, chemical
or biological weapons.
The exercise, the first of its kind in the French capital, comes
less than a week after France reduced its terror alert status to
the lowest level, signaling that the risk of attacks has receded.
But officials and experts say France needs to remain on guard.
Last December, French authorities dismantled what they said was
a terror cell with ties to Chechen rebels and al-Qaida that planned
bomb or toxic gas attacks in France and Russia.
"It's about time we had one of these exercises," said Francois
Heisbourg, director of the Foundation for Strategic Research
think-tank. While France has proved itself capable of coping with
natural disasters, it has not had to face terror attacks with mass
destruction weapons.
"It's one thing to be technically well prepared ... It's
another to be operating in an urban environment, in very confined
spaces, having to worry about people and traffic," Heisbourg said
in a phone interview.
Police in London underwent a similar exercise on the Underground
there in September, decontaminating scores of "casualties" from a
simulated chemical weapons attack.
APTV 10-22-03 0207EDT
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