Major flood exercise to be held

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London's ability to cope in the event of a natural disaster will be tested during a major flooding exercise.

Emergency services and other bodies will take part in the exercise at Hendon Police Training College in north London later.

The computer simulation will test the services's ability to cope with the problems caused by widespread flooding.

The London Resilience Partnership, responsible for London's emergency plans, is running the exercise.

Simulated problems

Bob Broadhurst, from the Metropolitan Police, said: "London has had a considerable experience in dealing with a multitude of different emergencies and disasters over the years.

"When dealing with something on this scale, command and control arrangements are key and this exercise will give us the opportunity to learn and develop our plans and to test our co-ordination with the different organisations who would be involved."

Those involved in the exercise will aim to work together to tackle a host of problems caused by rising floodwater from the loss of power, loss of public transport to the evacuation of worried residents.

The London Resilience Partnership was created after the 11 September terrorist attacks in New York.