About 1,800 specialists from 30 countries will take part in an exercise designed to train disaster relief workers to tackle emergencies such as earthquakes and radioactive leaks, Austria's Interior Minister Ernst Strasser said on Thursday. The four-day exercise, beginning Monday about 40 kilometres south of Vienna, includes simulated leaks of radioactive, chemical and biological substances from destroyed industrial plants, and the derailing of a train in an earthquake. "Eudrex" - short for "European Union Disaster Relief Exercise" - takes place in an imaginary country "Tritolia", with the fictional disaster started by a major earthquake, and compounded by the destruction of a pharmaceuticals factory, damage to radioactive sources, and a transport accident involving dangerous chemicals. According to the script, initial efforts by local emergency services would fail, and national services are stretched beyond their limits. At that stage, a cross-border emergency mission would be launched. Six teams, from Bulgaria, Germany, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic would converge on the site. The organizers said that on the Austrian side, the Red Cross, Samaritans, Army, Interior Ministry, voluntary fire brigades, and national and provincial disaster managers are due to take part. An Austrian military spokesman, Lieutenant General Edmund Entacher, said "Eudrex 04" would cost 700,000 euros, of which the E.U. would contribute 400,000. --SP 1532 Local Time 1232 GMT
