Gibraltar’s emergency services and other first responding agencies took part in a live exercise on Tuesday 21st January to practice the multi-agency response to a marauding terrorist attack. The exercise was planned and conducted by the Office of Civil Contingencies.

The Exercise Director for the MTA LIVEX, Civil Contingencies Coordinator Ivor Lopez, chaired a formal debriefing on Wednesday 22nd January. The debrief involved the overall incident commander and commanders from each of the emergency services, and at every level of command. Members of the exercise Directing Staff and Debriefing Officers also attended the meeting and covered all phases of the response.

The debrief covered all aspects of the response at Operational, Tactical and Strategic levels of command. With an initial focus on the operational response, the assessment commenced with the initial calls received and the subsequent actions carried out by each of the Control Rooms (999) of the three emergency services, including the declaration of a Major Incident, mobilisation and deployment of first responders to the scene, and inter-control room communications to ensure a joint understanding of risks and shared situational awareness across all levels.

The exercise tested the deployment of responders to save lives by neutralising the suspect(s), delivering emergency medical care (including the employment of the ten second triage), and removing casualties and survivors. The RGP deployed directly to the scene to neutralise the threat and secure the scene, while ambulances arrived at an agreed safe distance within 7 minutes of being notified. When the RGP deemed it safe to do so, the Ambulance Service and GFRS moved directly to the scene to carry out life-saving interventions. The exercise also practiced an increase to Threat Level CRITICAL and the immediate adoption of protective counter-terrorism security measures, including increased security patrols and the armed guarding of high-priority sites across Gibraltar.

Civil Contingencies Coordinator, Ivor Lopez, said: “The LIVEX provided an excellent platform to test both the emergency response to a low-sophistication terrorist attack and multi-agency interoperability at every level of command. The exercise also provided an opportunity to put the pre-exercise training conducted across the emergency services into practice in a controlled environment. In the last four months alone, these have included JESIP Command Courses, Medical Incident Command and Triage, Operational Level Training, and MTA Tabletop Exercises. These multi-agency training events, in addition to the single-agency training carried out by every responding agency, are important opportunities to test our preparedness, procedures and adherence to the JESIP principles, and to identify any gaps and any areas for improvement. The comprehensive debriefing and assessment session allowed the incident commanders to share their learnings.”

Minister for Civil Contingencies, the Hon Leslie Bruzon, said: “Whilst we hope that no situation like the one practiced ever happens in Gibraltar, it is vital that we are prepared for every eventuality. I’d like to thank the Directing Staff from the Office of Civil Contingencies and other agencies for their significant effort in planning and conducting this exercise, and extend my gratitude to everyone involved.”