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Exercise Heartbeat – Ensuring Preparedness Of Building Owners Against Terror Attacks

A counter-terrorism exercise codenamed ‘Heartbeat’ was held on 25 September 2018 at the National Library Building. The exercise was jointly organised by the Singapore Police Force (SPF) and Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), supported by the National Library Board (NLB).

Ms Sun Xueling, Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of National Development, observed the exercise which tested the coordination between Home Team agencies, Safety & Security Watch Group[1] partners and the community in response to a simulated terror attack at the National Library Building.

A terror attack has the potential to disrupt the community and businesses with implications beyond the immediate harm to lives and property at the incident location. Building owners therefore need to develop and exercise their emergency response plans to deal with terror attacks, and train their staff and tenants on how to respond in an attack. Such exercises allow building owners, like the NLB, to test and validate their plans, and thereafter take necessary measures to enhance their emergency preparedness. To further strengthen the existing security and emergency preparedness measures that NLB has in place, NLB installed crash-rated bollards in its premises.

In preparation for the exercise, about 500 staff and tenants at the National Library Building were trained on the SGSecure “Run, Hide, Tell” protocol and Improvised First Aid Skills (IFAS) “Press, Tie, Tell”. A table-top exercise (TTX) was also conducted by the NLB to review their response plans, based on the TTX Guide for Workplaces jointly produced by SPF and the Ministry of Manpower to guide workplaces in carrying out such exercises.

Community stakeholders and businesses may refer to existing resources at the websites listed below for more information:

[1] The Safety and Security Watch Group (SSWG) Scheme is a networking platform for the commercial sector to collaborate on the target-hardening of their premises to guard against terror attacks. More information can be found here: https://www.police.gov.sg/resources/prevent-terrorism/safety-and-security-watch-group-scheme

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