Exercise at Manchester shopping centre also included masked gunman as part of training for Paris or Brussels-style assault

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A mock terrorist attack has been carried out at one of the UK’s busiest shopping centres, in a marauding assault similar to the Paris and Brussels atrocities.

More than 800 volunteers took part in the staged attack at the Trafford Centre in Manchester on Monday night.

As part of the drill a fake suicide bomber detonated an explosive device in a packed food court at the shopping centre.

The volunteers, wearing ear defenders and safety glasses, screamed out as if they were in pain as the training exercise unfolded.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Emergency forces and shoppers take place in a simulated terror attack at the Trafford Centre. Photograph: Getty Images

A second masked gunman then appeared at the entrance to the food court and fired a number of blank rounds.

Media organisations were then taken outside to witness the arrival, five minutes later, of armed police.

Two police marksmen moved towards the mock terrorist, ignoring the injured in a new tactic to save lives outlined by Scotland Yard following a similar training exercise in December.

The Trafford Centre mock attack, five months in the planning, then continued in the media’s absence until 6am.

Greater Manchester police sought to reassure people that there is no specific intelligence of an attack on the shopping centre, six miles west of Manchester city centre:

G M Police (@gmpolice) #CTexercise. Exercise has been in planning since 2015. It’s not related to or in response to any recent incident or specific threat.

The shopping centre will be open as usual on Tuesday, although the training exercise is due to continue unseen at unnamed locations until Wednesday, when it will finish in Merseyside.

Counter-terror officers have stepped up their planning for a marauding-style terror attack following the atrocities in Paris last year and Brussels in March.

In Brussels, 32 people were killed and more than 300 injured when three suicide bombers detonated explosives in the airport and Maelbeek metro station.

In November last year, 130 people were killed when three suicide bombers struck near the Stade de France in St-Denis, Paris, followed by suicide bombings and mass shootings at cafes, restaurants and the Bataclan music venue.