More than 300 police and RCMP officers, firefighters and paramedics shut down part of Montreal on Saturday to contain a simulated terror attack in the city's core.

Officials cordoned off a number of downtown streets to run through the terror drill, which was called "Montreal 360."

The simulations are designed to train officers so they can better respond if a real emergency were to occur.

"We need to do a general practice to see how people interact, (and what officers) should do to help, and not contradict the others," Montreal police spokesperson Cmdr. Ian Lafreniere told CTV Montreal.

Shortly after 2 p.m., Montreal police tweeted that the drill was over and the streets had been reopened.

During the simulation, Montreal police officers were called to the Black Watch Armoury after reports of shots being fired. The officers had to respond to a scenario involving numerous victims and suspects who fled on foot.

Participants used firearms loaded with blanks during the drill, and police said that the public would not be in any danger.

Another drill on Saturday, at the Longue Pointe military base in the Mercier-Hochelaga Maisonneuve borough, involved a gas attack.

Officers responded to tips about two suspects who, according to callers, boarded a bus with a container full of a suspicious-looking substance.

During the drill, officers located the bus and two suspects on board. When one of the suspects released "toxic gas," the police responded by "killing" one suspect and shooting the other in the upper body.

After officers neutralized the suspects, they called in the hazmat team to practice cleaning up the toxic substance and dealing with victims who had been exposed to the substance.

In addition to members of the hazmat team, Quebec provincial police and the RCMP, employees from the Department of National Defence and Quebec's Ministry of Public Security also participated in the simulation, making it Montreal's largest terror drill since 2005.

That training exercise simulated a terror attack on the city's Metro.

The exercise drew a crowd of around 200 onlookers to the barricades around the simulation zone.