Olympic drill shows up delays
A major exercise designed to test Greek security and emergency forces’ reactions to terrorists attacking the Summer Olympics with weapons of mass destruction or taking hostages was a qualified success, sources said yesterday. The three-day drill, code-named Blue Odyssey, was carried out under complete secrecy, with foreign security experts present, and ended on Sunday. According to a police statement yesterday, it was «a success, by general consent.» However, sources said that although the parts concerning a hostage crisis and the theft of radioactive materials were tackled without a hitch, response to a simulated poison gas attack on a train at the Piraeus railway station – which had been closed down for the exercise on Saturday – was delayed. According to the exercise, a bomb exploded in a train, killing three people and releasing the deadly Sarin gas. Fifty people were ostensibly exposed to the poison, and the delay in the rescue effort would have lead to high fatalities during a real attack. A total of 1,967 people took part in the exercise.
