Bomb drill error evacuates school
Military exercise sparks emergency at Brittany nursery school and retirement home as authorities unaware it was a drill
A MILITARY exercise accidentally triggered the evacuation of a nursery school and retirement home in Brittany after reports that a biological bomb was about to be detonated.
The drill was run by France's air defence and operations centre in Villacoublay, Yvelines, but a coded message containing the GPS coordinates of the bomb was sent to the naval base at Brest, without explaining it was an exercise.
The warning, received at 11.00 yesterday, was relayed to the prefect of Finistère, then the local mayor of Landivisiau, where the bomb was set to detonate.
Almost 100 police, gendarmes, sniffer dogs, bomb diffusion and chemicals experts and local civil security units were launched by the naval base, unaware a drill was taking place.
Near the location of the bomb, the air base at Landivisiau, Finistère, 80 children at a nursery school were evacuated from class and moved to their gymnasium and residents of an old people's home were confined to their rooms.
After three hours the message was eventually received that the incident was a drill.
A spokesman for the naval base said: "The person who received the call reacted brilliantly. They followed exactly the procedure for such a bomb alert."
The exercise was originally designed to test the communication links and reaction speeds of different emergency services.
