SINGAPORE: In Changi Airport, gunmen open fire before a suicide bomber blows himself up, killing throngs of waiting passengers.

This fearful scenario might not be so far-fetched, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong after the first phase of Exercise Northstar, where a simulated terrorist attack on the airport was dramatically played out early on Tuesday (Oct 17) morning.



"I think we’ve chosen a very realistic scenario for the exercise, because if you look around the world, more than one airport has had a terrorist attack," he said.

"Changi Airport is a high profile target. It’s completely plausible that something like this would happen in Singapore one day, and if it does happen, we must be quite sure that our responders are ready for it."





Last year, explosions ripped through the departure hall of Brussels Zaventem Airport, killing at least 14 people, according to a local broadcaster. The blasts were probably caused by at least one suicide bomber, a Belgian prosecutor said.



Each sporting a pair of safety glasses, Mr Lee and his wife Ho Ching watched on as multiple agencies pulled together in response to a series of brazen attacks.

Changi Airport Group staff also applied SGSecure’s Run, Hide and Tell response, which involves running away or hiding from danger, before administering improvised first aid to casualties once the threats were taken down.

“I think it needs a lot of cooperation, a lot of practice, a lot of teamwork; many different agencies are involved,” Mr Lee added.

“We know what to do, we know how to work together, we know who’s to go where and we react in such a way as to minimise the casualties and to deal with the threat as quickly as possible.”

During the previous edition of the exercise, which was conducted at Singapore Sports Hub, Kallang Wave Mall and Stadium MRT Station, Mr Lee had stressed that terrorism is a "live problem" for Singapore and the region.

To that end, Mr Lee said exercises like these enable agencies to "come together, practise what they need to do, and also give us a good sense of where weaknesses in our preparations may be and what we have to beef up".

"I think I can see from today’s exercise that a lot of work has gone into it," he added. "They’ve done a good job, but I’m sure we’ll go back and analyse this and we will decide that there are more things we need to do to tighten up."