Simulated chemical attack staged in central Paris

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, October 23, 2003

Simulated chemical attack staged in central Paris

Five-hundred police, firemen, medicare personnel and transport staff reacted to a simulated chemical attack overnight in the Invalides subway station, in central Paris.

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Five-hundred police, firemen, medicare personnel and transport staff reacted to a simulated chemical attack overnight in the Invalides subway station, in central Paris.

Two "terrorists" broke a receptacle containing a toxic gas at midnight Wednesday when they were about to be arrested in the station. Two victims "died" of the gas. Dozens of passengers and policemen who arrived immediately were "harmed".

A dozen police and fire vehicles arrived on the spot. Astronaut-clad firemen and police in anti-chemical dress checked the gas before deciding it involved a deadly element.

Minutes later, the police activated the Piratox anti-terror plan and the Red Alert plan across the city.

The exercise was a simulation of the 1995 attack in Tokyo when the Japanese Aum sect leaked sarin gas in a crowded subway, killing 15 passengers and sickening thousands of others.

"The exercise is not to check the rapidity of reaction but the coordination among the personnel of police, fireman and medical support. It is an exercise of professional training," Jean-Paul Proust, Prefect of the Paris police told about 170 reporters at the Invalides station.

French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy attended the drill, which last five hourstill Thursday morning.

The Invalides station is the junction of two subway lines, a suburban commuter line and an area for buses bound for airport.

The gold-topped Invalides houses the remains of Napoleon Bonaparte and is a stone's throw from the Foreign Ministry at the Quai d'Orsay, and a short walk to the National Assembly's Palais Bourbon.

"The scenario of a chemical attack in the subway is one of the biggest terror threats," said Christiane Sommade, Secretary-General of the high committee for Civil Defense, in an interview published in Wednesday's Le Figaro.

"The French authorities have been more aware of the threat since Sept. 11, 2001. Significant efforts have been made in acquiring material and personnel training," Sommade said.

In May and June, French authorities staged similar drills in a subway station in the southwestern city of Toulouse and in the eastern suburbs of Paris.

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