Solent ferry bomb alert practice

The fire service was airlifted to the scene in a coastguard helicopter

Hundreds of passengers have been evacuated from a ferry halfway to the Isle of Wight in a mock bomb alert.

Some 250 members of the public volunteered to take part in a practice to help emergency services prepare for a potential disaster in the Solent.

Firefighters were flown by helicopter to the Wight Link ferry - in which a fake bomb had supposedly put chemicals on a lorry at risk of explosion.

The exercise on Thursday also involved the Royal Navy, police and coastguard.

Volunteers were picked up from Old Portsmouth, before being evacuated to another ferry in the middle of the Solent.

'Chemical leak'

Commander Tom Herman, Queen's Harbour Master for Portsmouth, told BBC News: "The scenario was that a suspect packet was found very close to a lorry containing hazardous chemicals.

"In our imaginary scenario, an ordnance disposal team blew up the package to make it safe and this caused a chemical leak.

"That called for Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service to be deployed by helicopter to make sure the chemicals were contained.

"There are some lessons to be learned from today's practice, but all minor, such as needing another hand-held microphone for the evacuation."

Hampshire and Sussex ambulance services, the Royal National Lifeboat Institute, council officials from Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight and Associated British Ports also took part in the annual exercise.