Armed police swoop on St Mary's Stadium for terror attack training
Emergency services put through their paces in major exercise
Armed police, firefighters and paramedics have been involved in a major training exercise simulating a terror attack at St Mary's stadium and the Ageas Bowl in Southampton.
The venues were used to create realistic scenarios for the emergency services.
The two-day exercise was not in response to any specific threat or intelligence, police said.
Assistant Chief Constable Tim Metcalfe from Counter Terrorism Policing South East, said: "We are always focused on ensuring we are match-fit to respond to any major incident or terrorism incident.
"These sorts of incidents can often present a complex and confusing picture in the initial stages.
"We use exercises such as this to ensure that across policing, our ability to respond to these incidents is tried and tested."
Assistant Chief Constable Catherine Akehurst, from Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary, said: "This exercise was a great opportunity to test our plans and make sure we are as prepared as possible in the event of a large scale emergency.
"Exercises like this take place throughout the year across the country to ensure counter terrorism policing and the wider policing family, is prepared for major incidents, should the worst happen."