“It gave me palpitations!”
It was so realistic!
» A little adrenaline rush for a Cannes municipal employee, Wednesday afternoon at the Square Méro elementary school.
With around ten other colleagues, this woman debriefs one of the terrorist risk training exercises currently organized by the City for its 155 agents from the Education Department, including 133 animation agents who take care of children during after-school time.
A few minutes ago, the group had to face the aggression of a (fake) parent wanting to forcefully enter the school through the gate.
And take the right actions to keep the children (who are not there during the exercise) safe.
“Next time, if unfortunately it happens, you will probably have less palpitations,” reassures François Scardino, a former police officer from the ex-GIPN (now Raid) and the Nice BRI who is leading this mini-course with two other colleagues.
Exercises that serve to “develop reflex actions”
Cannes, which implemented what it claims to be the “first municipal plan for preventing terrorist risk from February 2016” first had theoretical advice provided in December by these three former members of the police.
Since the beginning of January, there has been practice in the field, provided in small groups.
The animators are entitled to several scenarios such as shots fired outside (broadcast by a small portable speaker) or the entry of an assailant “on a murderous journey”.
Also read Annecy: how schools prepare for the risks of attack
The right way to open the gate and jam it a little with your feet, as well as trigger the alert button connected to the urban protection center, everything goes... right down to the precise identification of spaces for confining students .
Participants listen and ask questions.
“Protect your perimeter!”
Everything is permanent anticipation,” says the trainer who believes that these exercises serve to “develop reflex actions”.
A message perhaps heard more than elsewhere on a Côte d'Azur bruised by the attacks that have occurred in Nice in recent years.