Montreal holds chemical attack drill

Emergency crews blocked off parts of downtown Montreal Saturday as they tested how long it would take them to respond to a chemical attack.

Pretend victims of the simulated attack trudged out of the Square Victoria metro onto city streets to await help from police, fire and ambulance workers.

Those first on the scene arrived within seconds of getting called, and the "victims" were isolated within minutes.

The exercise was held to help emergency workers prepare for a real threat from a chemical or biological agent, such as anthrax.

The simulation was actually part of a larger exercise that has been in progress for weeks. Police recently carried out a mock raid of a clandestine chemical lab, part of another training exercise.

Fire department spokesman Richard Liebmann says although all of these scenarios are pre-planned, the responses still have to be somewhat improvised.

"The responders that are coming in here, they don't know all the details of what's going to be happening. All they know is they get a call, the type of call it is, they know it's a simulation obviously, but they're going to have to come in and put in place our normal procedures."

The area between Notre Dame and Viger and University and St. Pierre streets was first closed off to the public at 8:30 a.m. Liebmann said they would remain closed until around 6 p.m.