Brussels, 17/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - With the attacks in Boston having brought the terrorist threat on American soil back to the fore, nine countries took part in a simulation on Wednesday 17 and Thursday 18 April, of a scale designed to test the level of preparedness of the member states in the event of such threats.
Planned well before the Boston attacks, this exercise was coordinated by the ATLAS network, which was set up in 2011 and which brings together the anti-terrorist police of the 27 member states. It ran simultaneous attacks in nine countries (Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and Romania) with simulations in railway stations, schools, shops, public transport and electricity power stations. This operation was the largest so far carried out by the many police units involved, the spokesperson to the competent commissioner, Cecilia Malmström, said on Wednesday lunchtime. The German police and its GSG9 units currently head up the ATLAS network.
The conclusions of this exercise, be they positive or negative, will not in any case be published, the commissioner's services have already warned. (SP/transl.fl)