Fake suicide bomber blows himself up in Trafford Centre training exercise

Volunteers at the shopping mall shrieked and ran for cover during the chilling exercise to help police deal with potential real-life attacks last night.

A dramatic, and very convincing, terrorism training exercise saw a ‘suicide bomber’ detonate a device at the Trafford Centre – killing and injuring dozens of ‘shoppers’.

The practice drill happened at midnight at the entrance to The Orient food court when a man dressed all in black walked in and shouted at the crowd.

The exercise took place in Orient Court, Trafford Centre.

Following this, an explosion rocked the food hall and causing the volunteers dropped to the floor.

Many were made up to look as if they had horrific injuries and others screamed out as if in pain.

Smoke filled the entrance to the foodcourt and some of the volunteers ran from restaurants, as if they were trying to dash to safety.

Screen grab from the M.E.N footage of the exercise.

This is all part of counter terrorism procedure.

The sound of gunfire could be heard ringing out through the foodcourt as the volunteers screamed for help, then a masked gunman appeared firing a number of shots.

At this point, no media coverage was allowed, and the exercise continued on until 6am.

This training is set to continue in un-named locations until Wednesday, where it will finish in Merseyside. The test, is the latest action which has been taken across the country, with the chances of a real terror strike said to be ‘likely’.

Following deadly attacks in Paris and Brussels, the terrorist threat remains ‘severe’ according to MI5.