Exercise Heartbeat – Sultan Mosque Exercised Their Response Plans With Home Team Agencies In A Simulated Terror Attack

A counter-terrorism exercise codenamed ‘Heartbeat’ was held at Sultan Mosque on 24 November 2019. The Singapore Police Force (SPF), Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) and the Sultan Mosque, jointly organised the exercise, which involved a simulated terror attack at the place of worship.

There have been attacks on places of worship and religious institutions around the world in the recent years. In March 2019, there were two mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand. On Easter Sunday in April 2019, a series of bombings took place in Sri Lanka, of which three of the locations included churches.

Exercise Heartbeat was conducted at Sultan Mosque to validate its contingency plans and enhance its contingency response plans to better deter, detect, delay, deny and deal with a terror attack scenario. This is the first time the exercise is held at a place of worship in Singapore. These efforts by the stakeholder highlight the importance for building owners to review their security measures and enhance their emergency preparedness against terror attacks. Building owners are encouraged to develop contingency plans to deal with terror attacks and train their staff and tenants to be familiar with the plans.

In preparation for this exercise, about 60 staff and volunteers from Sultan Mosque were trained on the SGSecure “Run, Hide, Tell” protocol and Improvised First Aid Skills (IFAS) “Press, Tie, Tell”, which was also executed in the exercise. A table-top exercise (TTX) was also jointly conducted by the Singapore Police Force and Sultan Mosque with the purpose of identifying gaps in their response plans. This TTX took reference from the ‘TTX Guide for Workplaces’, which was jointly produced by SPF and the Ministry of Manpower to help and encourage all workplaces to conduct a TTX.

The impact of a terror attack extends beyond the point of attack. Exercise Heartbeat serves to enhance community preparedness in dealing with a terror attack. Businesses are encouraged to constantly review their plans. They may also refer to the resources listed below for more information: