(ANSA) - Milan's readiness to deal with terrorism was tested on Friday with the staging of multiple, simulated attacks in the northern city which left almost 25 people 'dead'.
The anti-terrorism drill - the biggest ever held in Italy - involved two simultaneous fake train blasts and a simulated attack on an airport bus complete with hostage-taking.
The first 'bomb' exploded at midday on a train heading from the city centre to Malpensa, Milan's international airport. The explosion took place after the train pulled into the station at Piazza Cadorna in the city centre. Three minutes later, another bomb went off in a carriage on an underground train at the same station. Some 40 minutes later, at Milan's secondary airport of
Linate, a fake terrorist armed with a gun tried to plant a bomb at a British Airways check-in desk before leaping aboard a staff bus and taking a driver and two airport workers hostage.
More than 2,000 people took part in the exercises, which brought traffic in the city centre to a standstill as police, firemen and medical and emergency staff rushed to the scenes of the attacks.
Shops near the Cadorna station were closed and streets cordoned off and cleared of traffic as some 200 police cars and ambulances poured into the area and helicopters circled in the sky above.
Meanwhile, the city hall was evacuated and Milan Mayor Gabriele Albertini and Deputy Mayor Riccardo De Corato were escorted to safety by security officials. At Linate, the exercise included lengthy negotiations between the police and the fake terrorist for the release of the three hostages.
The drills were coordinated and monitored by Milan's top administrative officer, the prefect, whose office issued updated reports on the number of 'victims'. The final toll was 226, including 24 'deaths', 37 critically injured, 65 seriously injured and 100 requiring treatment for minor injuries.
Albertini and De Corato followed the exercises from the prefecture, where TV screens relayed images from cameras placed directly at the scenes of the fictitious attacks. The prefecture was in constant contact with the Interior Ministry, which ordered the drills to test the responsiveness
and efficiency of emergency services in the event of a real terrorist attack.
Milan officials proclaimed the exercises a success, suggesting they had exposed no serious flaws.
Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu, who ordered the drills after the July terrorist attacks in London, said he was "very satisfied" with the way the city handled the simulated attacks.
He praised all the police and emergency services involved for the "high level of coordination and operating efficiency shown". The minister confirmed that similar anti-terrorism drills would now be held in Rome, Naples and Turin. He said the outcome of the exercises would be examined
and compared and the conclusions made public at a subsequent press conference.
Milan Prefect Bruno Ferrante was also pleased with the outcome of Friday's drills, saying that the coordination of the various response and rescue operations had gone well and that there had been "no moments of confusion or overlapping".
While Italy's emergency services have been tested in terrorism drills before, these have only involved individual units and nothing has been carried out on this scale before. When it was announced in August that the Interior Ministry was planning the drills, there was immediate media
speculation that the government had information of a specific threat.
But Premier Silvio Berlusconi, a firm ally of US President George W. Bush, brushed off these concerns, saying that Italy was no more at risk than any other European nation.
"This is an alert that affects all Western countries," he said. "There is no individual country that can say it is more or less at risk."
