 A simulated terrorist attack exercise took place on DCU Glass-Neven campus on Friday the 16th of November. The training exercise was the first of its kind to take place in Ireland and involved the Guaradi, the National Ambulance Service, the Dublin Fire Brigade and the Defence Forces. The Guaradi Control Centre received a 999 call about a road traffic collision on the Collins Avenue entrance to DCU campus. Minutes later, a number of assailants exited the care and began shooting the bystanders. The Operation Barracuda Simulation acted out a college shooting to test how emergency agencies could deal with mass casualty terrorist attacks. The nursing and long-stailed buildings were the main buildings used to carry out the mock attack. The exercise lasted less than 50 minutes and drew on the experiences of the Sandy Hook School shooting of 2012 and other previous attacks. It always helps to be prepared for any sort of situation, like whether it happens or not, it doesn't matter. But to be prepared is another thing and I think that's vital. I feel like there's no harm, definitely no harm in doing them. Yeah, I'm all for it because if it does happen, God forbid, I'd rather we knew what we were doing beforehand. It's definitely something we should start thinking about. I know it's scary to us, but it could happen, so it's important. I think it's good for colleges and universities, especially if you're thinking about it, because there's lots of students here on a daily basis. Just to be safe and be aware of those kind of things, it's not a bad thing to have. I know, even with my cousins in America, they prepare for it in their classes. They have every few months, they have a fake one, just so they don't know what to do. But when I was in school, we never got warned or never got told about if anything did happen what we should do. All I know is maybe you have to barricade it or if there's a shooter, but that's all I know from a YouTube video. Each emergency agency prepared separately over an 18 month period for the training exercise, and the simulation was to test that they could work quickly and effectively together. Karen Gaffney, DCU TV News.