Gardaí and emergency services have conducted a training exercise to assess their response to a simulation of a knife attack at a nightclub in Cork city centre.
The exercise simulated an attack in which two people were injured and a third person was taken hostage.
It involved up to 80 people, with another 40 observers, and gardaí say the exercise was unprecedented in its nature and scale.
The attack was simulated in the busy nightclub to assess the response of emergency services in the early hours of a Sunday morning.
Staff at the Secret Garden nightclub at Hanover Street responded to the attack, treating the injured with first aid and moving the crowd away from the area until gardaí, National Ambulance Service and Cork City Fire Service personnel arrived at the scene.
Attack simulation exercise conducted at Cork nightclub. More: https://t.co/9lbKVxCLF6 pic.twitter.com/GGfV6YJm0S
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) November 29, 2017
Gardaí called for armed back-up after the hostage situation developed.
The operation was classified as a critical incident requiring a priority one response.
Four members of the Garda Regional Support Unit arrived and engaged the attacker before subduing him.
The response of all the emergency services will now be evaluated at an internal review to be conducted later.
Sgt Peter Murphy of Anglesea Street Garda Station, who helped organise the operation, said the emergency services were pleased with the operation.
He said the information gleaned from their response would help improve incident planning and management among all of the emergency services, nightclub and security staff.
