SHOP workers, cleaners and security guards have faced the threat of a terrorist attack at a Swindon shopping centre.

Staff and managers from Swindon Designer Outlet took part in Wiltshire's first Operation Argus exercise at neighbouring centre Steam in the town yesterday.

The representatives from outlets, as well as the management, security and cleaning teams, were led through a number of scenarios by officials from the county's emergency services as well as the National Counter Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO).

During the morning-long event, those taking part were shown a video of a mocked-up terrorist attack on a shopping centre, and in groups were encouraged to think about the plans in place at the shopping village as a whole and in their own particular departments.

Designer Outlet facilities manager Nick Poole said: "We have what we call Operation Quick Step, our evacuation procedure in the event of a bomb going off.

"But after what I've seen during this session, we will be going back to the drawing board."

He said the participants had seemed shocked at the film, which he also saw for the first time during the training event.

"I wanted them to think they are not on their own. I can't carry out any plan without them, and they couldn't do it without the management," said Mr Poole, who has personal experience of dealing with terrorism having completed six tours of duty in Northern Ireland with the Army.

"We are all going to be responsible to our customers in an emergency and need to be able to make it safe for them if an event happens."

Co-ordinating the event, which was run by specialists from Wiltshire Police connected to NaCTSO, was Sam Weller, Swindon Council's head of civil protection.

He said: "It has been an excellent turnout. It is essential that people have a greater awareness of things.

"Wiltshire is low risk but we've seen it happen elsewhere in the country - who would have envisaged an attack on Glasgow airport?"

As well as preparing strategies to help prevent attack and ways of dealing with the immediate aftermath, workers took part in a second session on how to prepare their firms against the threat of collapse.

Operation Argus was first launched in January, by the Metropolitan Police.