GERMAN SECURITY FORCES CONDUCT LARGEST AIRPORT ANTI-TERROR DRILL

Berlin: The biggest ever anti-terror exercise at a German airport took place at the Cologne Bonn Airport during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday.

Based on a scenario of a terror attack by a group of militarily trained assailants, the drill involved about 1,000 operational forces from different departments including the special forces of the Cologne police department and the GSG 9 unit of the federal police. Martin Pauly, press spokesman for the federal police at the Cologne Bonn Airport, told Xinhua news agency on Wednesday that “the exercise was definitely a success”.

“For the first time, we were able to simulate such an attack on a German commercial airport and thus bring the police officers on-site, who are the first to encounter the attackers in an emergency, into this situation,” said Pauly. Comparable exercises have already been carried out throughout Germany, especially at railway stations. A “novelty” was the attack on an airport, Pauly said. According to the federal police, there were currently no concrete indications of possible attacks, but such a scenario was conceivable at any time in view of the “increased risk situation in Germany”.

“It is important that we are prepared in the best possible way in the event of an actual attack,” said Wolfgang Wurm, president of the federal police headquarter in the city of Sankt Augustin.