Published: Thursday, 4th June, 2009 8:25am

Police prepared for Dunfermline terror attack

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IT"S a packed Saturday evening in Dunfermline"s town centre, revellers are making their way into pubs and clubs when a terrorist car bomb goes off.

There"s a second blast in the High Street with razor sharp metal and glass exploding outwards from a vehicle parked next to customers seated outside a cafe.

A third deadly device, placed in a bag below a table in a pub, reduces the walls to rubble, with roofs collapsing and a shell of a building where a lively bar once stood.

The High Street is carnage with the dead and injured littering the street, with bombed-out buildings and debris where once there was a happy and lively scene.

Too far fetched?

Not for Fife police who posed that exact scenario to Dunfermline"s pub and bar staff last week, asking them 'And what would you do?'

Specially trained officers spoke to 63 members of the city"s night-time economy to make them aware of how they could prevent, handle and recover from a terrorist attack.

Inspector Bill Ritchie, the police"s business liaison officer, said, 'The incident was three bombs within the town centre – two vehicle-based – happening within 40 minutes of each other.

'It"s a multi-media simulation that takes them through the incident and stops at various points to ask them what they could do next and what ability do they have to act.

'It gets them thinking about what they might do if anything like that happened.'

He continued, 'There"s no intelligence that suggests Fife is a target but this is getting rolled out across the UK.

'People obviously latch onto the terrorism angle but it also sits well if there"s another civil emergency, such as a fire, gas explosion or flood.

'It was aimed at pubs and clubs, anyone that works in the night-time economy really, you"ve also got bus supervisors and taxi drivers.'

The scenario is based on the actual experiences of individuals and organisations that have been involved in live incidents and further sessions are planned with, for example, hotel staff in the area.

Titled Project Argus, it was put together by specially trained counter terrorism security advisers from within the Fife force with the hope that these businesses will now have a better idea of how to cope, or even prevent, such devastating incidents.

Inspector Ritchie said the session formed part of the national counter terrorism strategy, known as Contest, which has four strands – protect, prepare, prevent and pursue.

He said, 'The threat to the UK from terrorism is real and serious and we all have a role to play in helping to prevent it.

'Communities are the key to this process and Fife"s business communities can play a vital role in assisting the police to effectively combat this threat.'

He continued, 'It"s about safeguarding their staff and their clients but it"s about business continuity too. 'What would they do if 75 per cent of their staff was down with swine flu or their computer system had been totally wiped out in a fire or explosion?

'It"s about putting measures in place and it makes them think.

'To be fair, some already have good plans in place and we had the experts there to keep them right.'

Scott Jordan, chairman of the Pubwatch Association in Dunfermline, said, 'Who can definitely say they"re not a target for terrorism nowadays?

'It can happen anywhere but the overall message is about keeping vigilant and looking at Dunfermline"s readiness.

'The same rules apply if there"s a fire or gas explosion.'

He added, 'It"s not the largest town centre so response times tend to be quite good.

'Even if you take a scenario from Pubwatch, if there"s trouble on a Saturday night it filters through very quickly so we need to be quite vigilant in general.

'As regards pubs, the trained stewards make a difference as they"re far more aware of potential flashpoints and keep their eyes open.'