Pupils involved at centre of emergency services exercise

Screams for help could be heard from the St Kevin's College campus in Oamaru yesterday.

But the pupils screaming were merely acting for the benefit of the largest multi-agency emergency services exercise staged in Oamaru.

Senior Sergeant Jason McCoy, of Oamaru, said the exercise was a ''response to mass casualties'' after an unspecified event.

''It was a good learning and training exercise for the school and emergency services - the school for a lockdown and how they cope with the trauma going on there, the police for the response to that incident, and then, obviously, St John in relation to patient recovery and mass triage, and because it's mass triage, the fire service helped out with that.

''We've got civil defence with a welfare centre for all those other kids.''

He said 24 local police officers took part, and eight officers from Dunedin oversaw the exercise.

St John territory manager James Stewart said the exercise included primarily an Oamaru response - 11 staff from Oamaru were joined by three Dunedin staff trained in operational support.

Of importance was the time it took to set up a treatment and triage area, and how well the team slipped into its management structure and environment.

It was four minutes from the arrival at the scene until the St John crew sent their first detailed situation report ''which is exceptional''.

St Kevin's College principal Paul Olsen said most of the school's 450 pupils chose to take part in the exercise, including 38, mostly drama pupils, who volunteered to be among the injured.

Pupils wanted ''insight into how they might be able to help respond effectively'' in an emergency situation.

hamish.maclean@odt.co.nz