STUDENTS at Somerset College, Taunton, finishing their National Diploma in uniformed public services responded to simulated emergencies designed to feel real and life-threatening.

A day was spent with the police and fire and rescue services to improve their knowledge and ability to handle major incidents.

At Portishead police HQ the students role-played as police officers in exercises using a control simulator system - one involved reacting to a mock call from a bus driver reporting a passenger with a rucksack behaving suspiciously.

Another scenario explored events in a neighbourhood that took the law into their own hands while searching for a missing child.

The afternoon was spent at the Taunton Fire Station, where students searched through a smoke-filled building and a mock road traffic collision, including a student being cut out of a vehicle.

Public services lecturer Jim Bee said: “It’s important that our students get practice and exposure to emergency incidents through exercises like this.

“It gives them the confidence and ability needed to go on in the workplace later.”