Portsmouth's Spinnaker Tower disaster exercise underway

Actor Jon Jupp was among those taking part in the drill

A disaster simulation exercise based on a tower collapsing has got underway.

Emergency services in Portsmouth have been rescuing "victims" covered with fake blood and injuries as part of the drill based around the collapse of the 170m (560ft) Spinnaker Tower.

National and international emergency response organisations are all taking part in the exercise, described as the biggest of its kind in the UK.

Actors and make-up artists are making the scenario as realistic as possible.

Staff from Queen Alexandra (QA) hospital and nursing academics and medical students from the University of Portsmouth are among those taking part in the event that runs until Friday.

Participants stressed that although it looked realistic no-one was hurt

Laura Knight, a university teaching fellow, said: "Major incidents you never know when they are going to crop up, you never know how big they are going to be, you are never going to know what's involved so actually having something like this in your repertoire of clinical skills is really important."

Melanie Tanner, a senior teaching fellow at the University of Portsmouth, said: "This is as realistic as we can possibly make it. Although it looks very realistic and there's some injuries that look horrific, actually no-one has been hurt. "

Melanie Tanner said the exercise was 'full on'

The four-day SIMEX Series exercise - which is taking place at the University of Portsmouth - is designed to test disaster event response plans and procedures.

It will also have a number of scenarios based on a refugee incident at other sites in Portsmouth.

The annual SIMEX Series exercise, which started in 2012, comprises a mix of live, simulation and command and control events in order to test both national and international emergency responses to disasters.

Make-up artists and actors worked in the exercise