Counter terrorism training for retailers

Retailers in Greater Manchester are to be trained on how to deal with a terrorist attack over the next two years.

Officers from GMP’s Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU) as well as Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, Civil Contingency Departments and the North West Ambulance Service will be carrying out the specialist training.

The aim is to ensure that all retailers, particularly large shopping centres are prepared for a terrorist attack and fully aware of their roles and responsibilities.

Training will last a day and involves taking businesses through a simulated terrorist attack.  It will look at a number of aspects including preventing, handling and recovering from an attack.  It will also explore what is likely to happen during an incident and the types of injuries that can be expected.

A number of pilot training days have already been run but an event today, Monday 30 July, at the Reebok Stadium, Bolton was the first to be done on a large scale. More than fifty representatives from local businesses attended, ranging from financial organisations through to major retailers.  

A further nine events will be held this year with more planned for 2008.

GMP’s ACC Justine Curran opened the event, she commented: “The threat from terrorism is very real and everyone has a role to play in preventing it – particularly local businesses.  

“These events are a unique opportunity for retailers to find out about how they should respond and what their incident management and contingency plans should consist of so staff, customers and company assets are safeguarded.

“We had a fantastic turnout for today’s event and I would urge businesses to attend future training days.”

The events are being run under Operation Argus – a National Counter Terrorism Security Office Initiative.

There is currently no specific terrorism threat to retailers in Greater Manchester.