THE nightmare of every parent, police officer and health professional was played out for all it was worth in a realistic exercise at Wiltshire police headquarters in Devizes last week.

The gymnasium at the London Road site was transformed into a large night club where "disorder" had broken out, leading to an incident of catastrophic proportions.

Make-up was applied to casualties of all ages to simulate life-threatening injuries as diverse as chemical burns, heart attacks, glass cuts, stab wounds, leg injuries, head wounds and a drugs overdose.

The police medics had to work in a smoke-filled room under timed conditions to treat and remove the panic-stricken casualties as quickly and efficiently as possible. The

police helicopter was also on standby and was used to load a man with spinal injuries, ready for transportation to hospital.

The realistic make-up was applied by Jo Curnock, an administrator at Salisbury police station, who is also a member of St John Ambulance.

The officers who designed the exercise, Sgt Graham Copestake from the Officer Safety Department and PC Tom Kinderman, who is based at Devizes police station, hailed the exercise a great success.

PC Kinderman said: "Not only did it provide extremely realistic training for our officers, it also demonstrated how well prepared they are to use the skills they have been trained with."