Margate's Dreamland theme park stages major incident drill

Emergency services and event organisers have practised responding to a major incident at a theme park.

More than 200 people took park in the drill at Dreamland in Margate, Kent, on Monday afternoon.

They responded to the fictitious scenario of a crowd of 6,500 people being exposed to a potentially harmful chemical.

Margate fire crew manager Brennan Ralls said afterwards that it was "purely an exercise".

The theme park was closed during the exercise, which finished at about 15:00 BST.

The staged exercise, organised by Kent Fire and Rescue Service (KFRS), also involved Kent Police and paramedics, and aimed to allow each service to test their response.

Before the drill, Mr Ralls said: "This is a great opportunity to work together with our partners and colleagues, to ensure we are always prepared to respond to any emergency."

The fire service's main role was to assist with mass decontamination, with operational crews building shower units and guiding the public through the process.

South East Coast Ambulance Service's head of resilience and specialist operations, Dave Williams, said it was "vital" the service took part in such exercises to "test and learn" from its response.

Head of operations at Dreamland Margate, Shane Guy, said his staff, management team and partners would all benefit from the "real-time training".

Follow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].