Police apologize after fake suicide bomber shouted 'Allahu Akhbar' during terror drill

mirror.co.uk

A police chief has apologised over today's terror drill at the Trafford Centre after critics claimed it had 'stereotyped' Muslims.

The training exercise involved a fake suicide bomber who shouting "Allahu Akhbar" while detonating explosives and opening fire in the middle of a busy shopping centre...

This afternoon Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan of Greater Manchester responded to the criticism with an apology.

He tweeted: "This was unacceptable and I apologise for the offence caused."

Later in a statement he added: "For the past 24 hours GMP, along with other agencies has been hosting a counter terrorism training exercise based at the Trafford Centre which began with a mock suicide bomber detonating a bomb outside the shopping centre...

"It is necessary for agencies including the police to train and prepare using exercises such as this so that we would be in the best possible position to respond in the event that the unthinkable happened and an attack took place.

"The scenario for this exercise is based on a suicide attack by extremist Daesh style organization and the scenario writers have centred the circumstances around previous similar attacks of this nature, mirroring details of past events to make the situation as real life as possible for all of those involved.

Later in a statement he added: "For the past 24 hours GMP, along with other agencies has been hosting a counter terrorism training exercise based at the Trafford Centre which began with a mock suicide bomber detonating a bomb outside the shopping centre.