People are being urged to not be alarmed as Kent Police and its partners undertake emergency services training at Bluewater shopping centre in Dartford.

The exercise, taking place later this evening (April 29), aims to test the ways in which services and other organisations co-operate together when responding to a security alert – with both armed and unarmed officers.

But a top police constable has stressed that this is not to say the shopping centre, or elsewhere, is at risk of imminent danger.

Kent Police’s Assistant Chief Constable Tony Blaker said: “It is important to point out that this training exercise, which has been in the planning stages since July 2017, is not in response to any specific intelligence suggesting Bluewater or anywhere else is at risk.

“We regularly hold such exercises at various locations across the county, covering a wide range of scenarios.

“It provides invaluable training experience for all participants.”

There is a possibility that members of the public will see police, fire, and ambulance service staff at Bluewater, or hear activity during the exercise, but this is part of the training procedure.

Mr Blaker added that the force has organised resources accordingly to ‘ensure this will be business as usual, with officers on duty as normal’.

Bluewater general manager Robert Goodman said: “Bluewater is assisting Kent Police by hosting its emergency services training exercise, which is part of an ongoing series of similar exercises taking place across Kent and the UK.

“We would like to reassure guests that the training exercise will take place outside of Bluewater opening hours, however our restaurants will be closing at 8pm on this occasion.”

The exercise will take place between 8pm and 4am.