A MAJOR simulated exercise involving 600 personnel has been staged in Wiltshire to measure the readiness of front-line services in the county to deal with a major emergency.

The exercise, code named 'Wyvern Reunited' which had been planned for 18 months, did not include a terrorist element but was based around a mid-air collision between a cargo plane and a passenger plane.

The collision resulted in the cargo plane landing on a BP distribution depot near Swindon while the passenger plane came down on Salisbury Plain.

The exercise included evacuating residents to a local rest centre and dealing with injured and dead people.

Exercise Wvyern reunited was led by the Wiltshire Major Incident Co-ordinating Group (MICG) - a body of front line emergency responders to a major incident.

MICG includes Wilt-shire Constabulary, Wiltshire Fire Brig-ade, Wiltshire Ambul-ance Service NHS Trust, Wiltshire Prim-ary Care Trusts, Wiltshire County Council, Swindon Borough Council and the military, namely 43 (Wessex) Brigade at Bulford, who sponsored Wyvern Reunited.

Inspector Charlie Dibble of Wiltshire Constabulary, said: "Our thanks go to all of those involved.

"The fact that the exercise took place shows a strong commitment to show our ability to keep the people of Wiltshire safe and healthy in the most extreme and arduous conditions of a major incident.

"There were some things that did not go as well as we would have liked.

"These included some of the agencies working alongside the ambulance, fire and police not being involved as much as both we and they would have liked, due to the exercise moving forward more quickly than planned.

"Viewing the exercise as a whole, it achieved its aim in testing inter-agency operation, the new Wiltshire Emergency Com-munication Centre and our advances in technology."