A year before the Athens 2004 Summer Olympic games, organizers staged their first mock chemical, biological and radioactive materials attack exercise Wednesday dubbed “Blazing Sword”.
Intelligence officers, chemical and nuclear energy centres and health services will be involved in the two-day drill.
Wednesday officials from the security advisory group, comprising experts from Spain, Germany, Britain, the United States, Israel, Australia and France, as well as Greek experts, brief participants on the nature and uses of the weapons to be used in an attack.
According to a police statement “participants will be asked to respond to the exercise…based on a complex simulated scenario set in the Olympics”.
More than 45,000 police, military and Special Forces – three times as many as at the 2000 Sydney Games –will be on duty during the 2004 Games.
Meanwhile, the emphasis was on the Athens 2004 Summer Olympic Games when Greece’s top police officials met in Athens Wednesday to evaluate crime-fighting efforts, to plan strategy and to apply measures that have been drawn up in preparation for the 2004 Games.
Kathimerini reports that aside from the security preparations, which are said to be going well, the Public Order Ministry is also concerned at the impression of a lack of security caused by common crime.
One of the priorities in the strategy against crime is for the police force to reorganize itself and make better use of its personnel.
