KUALA LUMPUR: Commuters and office workers at KL Sentral had the front row seat to a police security exercise in the run-up to the SEA Games barely a month away.

They were greeted by a hail of smoke and gunfire as police personnel engaged “protesters” and rescued “hostages” near the Air Terminal in an exercise codenamed Ex-Rimau.

The exercise saw Malaysia’s finest – the men and women in blue – conducting security drills to overcome any untoward incident that might occur during the international competition.

A total of 585 personnel from 23 departments and units were involved in the drills.

For yesterday’s drill, they began setting up base at KL Sentral as early as 7am.

This included those from the Special Action Unit, VAT69, Bomb Disposal Unit, General Operations Force and CID, and general duty officers.

They conducted several scenarios, including stopping a riot, rescuing hostages from a bus and defusing a bomb, during the exercise that was held between 8am and 1pm yesterday.

The highlight of the drill came when Special Action Unit (UTK) personnel stormed a bus overtaken by “terrorists” and rescued “hostages”.

All in a day’s work: Special Action Unit personnel storming a bus before ‘rescuing’ hostages from terrorists during the Ex-Rimau Security Exercise at KL Sentral in Kuala Lumpur.

Ground commander Deputy Comm Datuk Azizan Abd Aziz said the drills were important to ensure maximum preparedness of the security forces.

“We want to ensure we are able to prevent and counter any untoward incident that might occur during the course of the competition.

“KL Sentral is a good place to test our readiness as it is one of the major public areas and one of the main transport hubs,” he told The Star yesterday.

So far, Ex-Rimau has been conducted at Bukit Jalil National Stadium, Langkawi, Setiu in Terengganu and KLCC.

DCP Azizan said the drills will end at Bukit Jalil National Stadium on Aug 3, which is about two weeks before the Games begin on Aug 19.

Kuala Lumpur police chief Comm Datuk Amar Singh said he was satisfied with the drill at KL Sentral and insisted that the police were ready.

“Safety and security of all will always remain our priority. We must not take anything for granted and must always be on guard,” he added.

He said a sufficient number of police personnel will be on duty during the competition.