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Czech Antiterrorist Exercise Planned in Underground, Railway Stations

Posted on: Tuesday, 6 September 2005, 18:00 CDT

Excerpt from report in English by Czech news agency CTK

Prague, 6 September: The anti-terrorist exercise scheduled for the night of 22 September will take place in the Prague underground station Namesti Republiky and at the railway stations Prague- Holesovice and in Kralupy nad Vltavou, central Bohemia, Interior Minister Frantisek Bublan told reporters today.

During the exercise, rescuers will simulate a train explosion, the disposal of a planted bomb and air contamination by a toxic substance, Bublan said after a meeting of the National Security Council today.

Bublan noted that the exercise would cost about 2m korunas and several hundreds of fire-fighters, policemen and health care employees would take part in it.

The railway stations will be closed to the public during the exercise, but the operation of the Prague underground will not be limited as it operates only between 5:00 a.m and midnight [0300 - 2200 gmt].

The exercise will follow up a similar training planned by the Defence Ministry a day earlier. The Havarie (Accident) 2005 operation in the Libava military grounds is to test the military ability to intervene after an attack on a nuclear power plant. Deputy Defence Minister Pavel Stalmach said that some 700 soldiers, including a chemical battalion and a field hospital, will take part in the exercise. [Passage omitted]

However, the Czech Republic still lacks a new action plan for the fight against terrorism. The National Security Council postponed its approval by a month again today.

Bublan said that the IT Ministry's comments on the creation of a telecommunication contact database and the preservation of these data for 12 months must be first implemented in the project.

(One dollar equals 23.18 korunas)

Source: BBC Monitoring European

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