Anti-terrorists at the City Stadium in Lodz!

On the 6-7 March a Large Scale Exercise (LSE) have been organized by Safe Stadium consortium. The large-scale exercise was held at the Lodz City Stadium. It was a joint effort of the whole partnership with the leading role of Biohazard Prevention Center (UniLodz), City Arena of Culture and Sport (Makis), The Regional Police Headquarters in Lodz (KWPL) and International Security and Emergency Management Institute (ISEMI) .

The Safe Stadium project is entering its final phase, and this exercise was one of the final stages. The exercise was aimed at testing the procedures and recommendations developed as part of the project, which are mainly intended for sports event organizers, facility administrators and law enforcement.

The event started in on 6ht of March with training for stewards and security managers. The training covered:

  • Introduction to CBRN and crucial CBRN procedures (e.g.: recognition, response, evacuation) – presented procedures were evaluated during the LSE,
  • Table top exercise, which analyzed response to threats tested during LSE,
  • Virtual Reality session, which tested VR solution developed within the project.

The second day was the Large Scale Exercise. The event covered: terrorist attack on the spectator with unknown chemical substance. This attack was followed by an evacuation of spectator and decontamination of those who were affected. Simultaneously the terrorist, who was trying to run away, was stopped by Police, following an exchange of fire. The LSE allowed the project to test various recommendation and procedures developed within Safe Stadium. In the event almost 400 people were involved: around 300 Police and UniLodz students acting as spectators, 25 stewards, 160 Police Officers form various units and 20 fire fighters. Specially for this exercise, the FK Gerlachov football club came to Lodz from Slovakia to play a match against the LKS III Lodz team.

,,Biological threats are the most difficult to counter, because clear procedures are the most difficult to develop in this case. The procedures must be complex and diverse.”
– Head of the Biohazard Prevention Center at the University of Lodz – Michal Bijak

Thank you and see you on next exercises!

 

SAFE STATIUM representatives participated in the Final Conference of the APPRAISE H2020 counter-terrorism project

At the end of February Rafał Batkowski, Ph.D (Expert on counter-terrorism in CEPOL – EU Agency for law enforcement training) participated as one of the experts cooperating with The Biohazard Prevention Centre in the Final Conference of the APPRAISE H2020 counter-terrorism project. APPRAISE H2020 EU Project targets the protection of public places and unprotected public facilities #softtargets by strengthening cooperation between the state and private security sectors.

Rafal Batkowski, Ph.D represented Biohazard Prevention Center, UŁ and the projects we coordinate: SAFE STADIUM, PRoSPeReS, Mall-CBRN and the partner SHRINEs Project. The conferences like this are an excellent forum to share knowledge, experience and recommendations.
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We are grateful to work with such experienced experts!

Internal training

On January 17, 2024, police officers from Lodz Voivodeship Police and the City Headquarters in Lodz as well as security experts from Lech Poznań, Seris Konsalnet and City Arena of Culture and Sport in Lodz attended a Siena X training. Siena X is an exercise tool developed by International Security and Emergency Management Institute that allows to test simultaneous online communication of many entities, implementation of solutions to solve crisis situation and assessment of the actions undertaken by a group of experts. After the training, there was an discussion related to various threats that training participants experienced in real life during matches they organized/secured. Additionally, solutions (procedures) prepared as part of the project have been discussed. The workshops are one of the last preparatory stages of the project, before large-scale exercises planned for March 2024 in Lodz, which are a part of a validation process of a Safe Stadium deliverables.

 

The training was organized by International Security and Emergency Management Institute and Lodz Voivodeship Police.

Safe Stadium at Security Research Event

Safe Stadium project has been invited to Security Research Event (SRE) organized by the European Commission with the support of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU in Brussels on 24 and 25 October 2023.
This event is an annual initiative focused on connecting industry, policy makers and knowledge institutions working in the area in security.  This year over 50 European project/initiatives have been presented. The event was accompanied by panelist discussion focusing on future of security research, cascading effects of crises, disaster preparedness and resilience or society digitalization and threats and opportunities that are associated with this phenomenon. Michał Bijak, Safe Stadium project coordinator, was invited to a panel focusing on cascading effects of crises.

Safe Stadium at Council of Europe

On 18th October Safe Stadium project have been presented at Committee on Safety and Security at Sports Events (T-S4) at the Council of Europe Convention on an Integrated Safety, Security and Service Approach at Football Matches and other Sports Events.

The meeting aim was to discuss between representatives of convention signatory countries how to increase safety and security of sport events as well as how to combat hate speech in sport and promote gender equality in sport.

The project Safe Stadium presented outcomes of the research phase which showcase that stadium are quite well prepared to traditional threats, however CBRN component is missing both in awareness and preparedness. Further project solution have been presented.

During the meeting T-S4 Committee and Safe Stadium project members jointly agreed to work together on annex to The Convention focusing on CBRN threats.

Pilot training at MŠK Žilina

International Security and Emergency Management Institute (ISEMI) and MSK Zilina in cooperation with MAKIS and University of Lodz carried out training for stewards of MSK Zilina on Saturday on 21st of October 2023 at the MSK Zilina football stadium. This training event was organized as part of WP 8 Training and piloting of the CBRN protection system with the main aim to enhance stewards capabilities also in area of CBRN and their first response to CBRN incidents based on the procedures and training materials prepared in WP4 and WP6. Next training and exercise will be organized in March 2023 in Lodz. Later we prepare more detail evaluation of training based on Feedback forms.

 

Fire Service exercises at Lech Poznań

On Friday 29.09.2023 Poznań City Headquarters of the Fire Service conducted at Lech Poznań Stadium exercises focusing on CBRNE threats.

The first part of the event focused  on theoretical aspects: types and summary of CBRN incidents, real-case scenarios, critical infrastructure safety and protection as well as management of (CBRN) threats at mass events. During the morning session also Safe Stadium, NEST and HoloZcan projects were presented by University of Lodz.
The second part of the event focused on exercises consisting of three scenarios:
  • – spraying chemical agents form a drone on fans of one of the stadium sectors,
  • – hanging of unidentified and suspicious object of the stadium roof structure,
  • – planting a suspicious object under the seats at one of the sectors.

 

The Safe Stadium – the decisive phase

In March and April next year, in Lodz and in Madrid, two large-scale pilot exercises will be organized to summarize the Safe Stadium Project. Last Wednesday, the Municipal Sports and Recreation Arena in Lodz organized a meeting devoted to the Lodz event, which will be held at Władysław Król Stadium.

Lodz Regional Police Team (Exercise Leader) presented the concept of pilot exercises. These will be the so-called exercises harmonizing the Police and non-police entities – project partners, as well as other public services and institutions performing tasks in the field of public safety. On behalf of the Police, the exercises will be attended by representatives of the organizational units of the Provincial Police Headquarters in Lodz and the Police Headquarters in Lodz, as well as the Police Prevention Unit and the Independent Counter-Terrorist Subdivision of the Police. The University of Lodz and the Provincial Police Headquarters will take care of the presence of several hundred helpers. An important role in the exercise will be played by Łódzki Klub Sportowy , for which the security of sports events is an absolute priority.

In order to ensure greater realism, the exercise will start with a football match (one of the foreign teams is associated with an institution that is part of the project consortium, but it will be a surprise).

The aim of the exercise will be checking the procedures and technical solutions developed for sport facilities i.e.: stewards, information services, security and order services, monitoring service, announcer, security manager. Their cooperation with the services in the event of a terrorist attack using CBRN agents will be tested.

Planning of Madrid Large Scale Exercise is planned for upcoming months.

Sport4Cancer conference

Few weeks ago our Project was presented during the Sport4Cancer scientific workshop (San Javier, Spain and online). The focus of the workshop was the relationship between cancer and physical activity.

The project SAFE STADIUM was briefly presented including reflections on the fact that procedures have to take into consideration spectators with different needs including disability. Moreover (as suggested by the organizers), many times the dream of the ill cancer patient, is the possibility to participate in their ‘hero’s sport game which might make them part of special needs group.

The congress has been co-funded by the European Union and has the support of the Seneca Foundation – Science and Technology Agency of the Region of Murcia through a grant from the Subprogram to support the Exchange of Highly Specialized Knowledge of the Region of Murcia.

Demonstration event at National Stadium in Warsaw

Three European projects SAFE STADIUM, HoloZcan and NEST joined forces and organized a complex demonstration event at PGE National Stadium in Warsaw on May 17, 2023. The event focused on the latest technological solutions and procedures for protecting public spaces in the context of CBRN terrorist attacks. The event was based on complementary focus of each of three projects. The HoloZcan project is developing a novel AI-supported technology solution for the detection of biological threats, while the NEST project is using multiple sensor systems to detect CBRN agents. The SAFE-STADIUM project focuses on the CBRN protection procedures of sport facilities.

 

In accordance with the established scenario, during an improvised football match with the participation of the public, a van was driven onto the pitch, from which terrorists in possession of a dangerous substance ran out. After spraying an unknown chemical agent, the attackers and several other people were killed. The situation required the immediate removal of spectators from the stadium and the implementation of rescue and identification operations and decontamination. In the course of the ongoing operations, it turned out that among the people leaving the facility, there was another terrorist who had released an agent of a biological nature. This complex scenario allowed to test technological solution developed by HoloZcan and NEST project, as well as, procedure developed within Safe Stadium. It also gave an opportunity for police and fire fighter forces to practise cooperation during improvised terrorist attack. 

 

All three project are financed by European Union: SAFE STADIUM (agreement 101034226 – SAFE STADIUM) by Internal security Funds – police, NEST (agreement 101018596 – NEST) and HoloZcan (agreement 101021723 — HoloZcan) by H2020 programme.

fot. Bartosz Kałużny (CKiPR UŁ)