Marauding terrorist attack (MTA): prehospital considerations

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 389-395
Author(s):  
Ravi Chauhan ◽  
Bianca M Conti ◽  
Damian Keene

Terrorist attacks are increasing each year as are the number of deaths associated with them. Recent incidents have seen a shift in tactics with the use of multiple terrorists across multiple locations with firearms or knives, referred to as the marauding terrorist attack. These methods are becoming more prevalent alongside the use of vehicles deliberately aimed at pedestrians. Management of these incidents can be challenging. Not only it involves a large number of casualties but also the management of a dynamic scene in terms of both location and threat from attack. In order to improve response, and potentially outcomes, a system or response needs to have preplanned and practised procedures in place. This article reviews major incident management for those unfamiliar with current prehospital practice and details some of the findings from recent marauding terrorist firearm attacks, in particular the evolution of newer scene management tools such as 3 Echo and THREAT. It highlights the importance of haemorrhage control and the public initiatives focusing on actions during a terrorist incident.

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S1) ◽  
pp. s28-s28 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Cole

The term terror medicine emerged early in the 21st century to describe medical issues associated with terrorist events. While related to emergency and disaster medicine, the field also includes several features that are specific to terrorist attacks. The Israeli healthcare experience as related to terrorist attacks during the intifada (2000–2006), provides a base for comparison to responses elsewhere including to events in Oklahoma City (1995), Madrid (2004), and London (2005). Terror medicine covers four broad areas. First is preparedness, which encompasses hospital surge capacity, training and exercises, and the stockpiling of medical provisions for conventional and non-conventional attacks. Second is incident management, which includes protocols for on-site care, triage, distribution of victims to hospitals, and hospital-receiving procedures. Third is mechanism of injuries and responses, which ranges from determining treatment priorities in someone with multiple injuries (burn, crush, ruptured organs, etc.) to dealing with biological, chemical, or radiological exposures. Fourth, psychological consequences, involves care for acute and long-term emotional effects of a terrorist attack. Growing interest in terror medicine has been manifested in recent publications and conferences. (Egs., SC Shapira and LA Cole, Terror Medicine: Birth of a Discipline, J Homeland Security and Emerg Management, Vol. 3, No. 2 [2006] http://www.terrormedicine.com/publications_files/Terrormedicine.pdfAC; SC Shapira, JS Hammond, LA Cole, eds., Essentials of Terror Medicine, NY: Springer [2009]; Symposiums on Terror Medicine and Security, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey [Newark, NJ, July 2009; Montclair, NJ, Sept. 2010]). Efforts to prevent terrorist attacks should be among a society's highest priorities. No less important are the requirements to prepare for, respond to, and recover from these events. The more that individuals and institutions become familiar with the essentials of terror medicine, the greater the protection they can provide to others.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (6) ◽  
pp. 81-86
Author(s):  
Kenwilliams Nyakomitah ◽  
Panuel Mwaeke ◽  
Lydia Mareri

With the turn of the century, Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, has had its share of terrorist activity. Due to their nature, global media houses have centred on these occurrences as they have formed the focal point during their immediacy. This has led to the rise of media; in all its variety, as a reliable ate truthful source of information: on the other hand, terrorists have used the media as a veritable and strong propaganda tool. This is in line with the main aim and intent of terrorism; the spread of fear and it also feeds to the belief by various terrorist groups that media is one of their biggest investments. This study sought to examine media’s role in televised media coverage and it’s influence on terrorist attacks in Nairobi County, Kenya. The sample size for the study was derived from 110 officers from the Anti-Terror Police Unit, a section of the Directorate if Criminal Investigations and informants numbering to 14 from television editors, freelance reporters, and across civil society. The data was collected through questionnaires and interview guides for the officers from ATPU and respondents from the media and civil society respectively. It was further analysed using SPSS and presented through the use of frequency distribution tables and bar graphs; other modes include inferential statistics of linear regression and Chi square. The study revealed that there was a significant effect on the security situation in Nairobi due to televised media coverage of terrorist attacks. The study revealed a significant relationship between media coverage of terrorist incidents and increased insecurity in Nairobi. (χ2 = 9.499a, p = 0.023). The recommendations include the development of proportionality in the reporting on terrorist attacks. This is because an overemphasis on terrorist threats has an inadvertent advancement of terrorism and terrorist activities. There is therefore a need for care by journalists lest they be used as vehicles of propaganda by terrorists. This is due to the power that is inherent in misinformation in denying the general public independent reporting and the resultant understanding that comes with it. It is recommended that there be a limit as to the amount and type of information released to the media and eventually to the public in the event of a terrorist attack; this helps in averting the spread of terrorist propaganda and the misinformation of the public.


The CDC Field Epidemiology Manual is the definitive resource for the most up-to-date guidance for epidemiologists and other experts conducting field investigations to address acute public health concerns that require prompt action. This latest edition (an update of the 3rd edition of the popular book Field Epidemiology, edited by Dr. Michael Gregg) offers practical advice to guide investigators through the core elements of field investigations, beginning with initiating operations and ending with developing interventions and communicating findings to the public. The manual also provides special considerations to address challenges that often arise during field investigations, such as addressing legal issues, working with multiple state and federal agencies, navigating a multinational outbreak investigation, and working within an incident management structure. The manual includes updated information on using new tools for field investigations, such as the latest technologies for data collection and management and incorporating data from geographic information systems (GIS). Finally, the manual includes tips for investigations in a wide variety of settings, including healthcare and community congregate settings, and different types of outbreaks, including acute enteric disease outbreaks, those suspected to be related to intentional use of biologic and toxic agents, and outbreaks of suicide, violence, and other forms of injury. The manual is written primarily for epidemiologists who will be conducting field investigations in local, state, federal, or international settings. However, others who contribute to field investigations (e.g., laboratory scientists, lawyers, experts in public policy and communications) will also find the book to be an excellent source of information. The manual is written in an easily readable format, including boxes and bulleted points, to provide greater utility for investigators in the field.


2021 ◽  
pp. 001112872110226
Author(s):  
Noah D. Turner ◽  
Steven M. Chermak ◽  
Joshua D. Freilich

Lone-actor terrorists have increasingly attracted the attention of researchers, policymakers, and practitioners alike. Despite this enhanced interest, few studies have compared the outcomes of lone-actor terrorist attacks with other terrorists, and those that have do not consider the terrorists’ intention to kill in an attack. This study utilizes a sample of 230 terrorist homicide incidents from the Extremist Crime Database to examine the extent to which lone-actors perpetrate more severe attacks than other terrorists. We find that lone-actors are significantly associated with more severe attack outcomes when controlling for the intention to kill. We conclude by commenting on the utility of these findings in U.S. counterterrorism policy and the importance for future research to account for actors’ intentions when assessing terrorist attack severity


Author(s):  
Xiangwei Qi ◽  
Weimin Pan ◽  
Bingcai Chen ◽  
Gulila Altenbek

As the current society is increasingly facing major challenges from extremism and terrorism, protecting key urban public facilities and important targets from destruction is an important challenge facing the security departments of all countries. Based on real scene, this paper conducts researches on anti-terrorism security game algorithms and emergency response models in response to the three key links of before, during and after terrorist attacks. First of all, this paper constructs a multi-round joint attack game and emergency response model based on cooperation, establishes the optimization problem of solving the defender’s optimal strategy in mathematical form, and then obtains the optimal defense strategy. Secondly, in response to the fact that terrorists are not completely rational, a new hybrid model is constructed to propose an efficient allocation and scheduling algorithm for safe resources in response to terrorist attacks. Thirdly, a model of crowd evacuation strategy after a terrorist attack is built based on the problem of crowd evacuation in multiple rounds of premeditated cooperative attacks. Finally, taking the area of the first ring of a certain city as a real scene, a complete game system of the whole process is constructed, and the game effectiveness evaluation of the existing security resource allocation scheme in the first ring area is carried out. Through the research of this thesis, the author puts forward some new technical ideas for the current society’s anti-terrorism governance, and hopes to provide some technical references for the decision-making of security agencies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (9) ◽  
pp. e002879
Author(s):  
Thomas Druetz ◽  
Lalique Browne ◽  
Frank Bicaba ◽  
Matthew Ian Mitchell ◽  
Abel Bicaba

IntroductionMost of the literature on terrorist attacks’ health impacts has focused on direct victims rather than on distal consequences in the overall population. There is limited knowledge on how terrorist attacks can be detrimental to access to healthcare services. The objective of this study is to assess the impact of terrorist attacks on the utilisation of maternal healthcare services by examining the case of Burkina Faso.MethodsThis longitudinal quasi-experimental study uses multiple interrupted time series analysis. Utilisation of healthcare services data was extracted from the National Health Information System in Burkina Faso. Data span the period of January 2013–December 2018 and include all public primary healthcare centres and district hospitals. Terrorist attack data were extracted from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project. Negative binomial regression models were fitted with fixed effects to isolate the immediate and long-term effects of terrorist attacks on three outcomes (antenatal care visits, of facility deliveries and of cesarean sections).ResultsDuring the next month of an attack, the incidence of assisted deliveries in healthcare facilities is significantly reduced by 3.8% (95% CI 1.3 to 6.3). Multiple attacks have immediate effects more pronounced than single attacks. Longitudinal analysis show that the incremental number of terrorist attacks is associated with a decrease of the three outcomes. For every additional attack in a commune, the incidence of cesarean sections is reduced by 7.7% (95% CI 4.7 to 10.7) while, for assisted deliveries, it is reduced by 2.5% (95% CI 1.9 to 3.1) and, for antenatal care visits, by 1.8% (95% CI 1.2 to 2.5).ConclusionTerrorist attacks constitute a new barrier to access of maternal healthcare in Burkina Faso. The exponential increase in terrorist activities in West Africa is expected to have negative effects on maternal health in the entire region.


2005 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 155-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amir Krivoy ◽  
Ido Layish ◽  
Eran Rotman ◽  
Avi Goldberg ◽  
Yoav Yehezkelli

AbstractSince the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin attack, terrorist attacks involving weapons of mass destruction or other industrial chemicals present worldwide security and health concerns. On-scene medical triage and treatment in such events is crucial to save as many lives as possible and minimize the deleterious effects of the toxic agent involved. Since there are many chemicals that can be used as potential terrorist weapons, the medical challenge for the emergency medical services (EMS) is a combination of: (1) recognizing that a chemical terrorist attack (non-conventional) has occurred; and (2) identifying the toxic agent followed by proper antidotal treatment. The latter must be done as quickly as possible, preferably on-scene. The most valuable decision at this stage should be whether the agent is organophosphate (OP) or not OP, based on clinical findings observed by pre-trained, first responders. This decision is crucial, since only OP intoxication has readily available, rapidly acting, onscene, specific agents such as atropine and one of the oximes, preferably administered using autoinjectors. Due to the lack of a specific antidote, exposure to other agents (such as industrial chemicals, e.g., chlorine, bromide, or ammonia) should be treated on-scene symptomatically with non-specific measures, such as decontamination and supportive treatment. This paper proposes an algorithm as a cognitive framework for the medical teams on-scene. This algorithm should be part of the medical team's training for preparedness for chemical terrorist attacks, and the team should be trained to use it in drills. Implementing this path of thinking should improve the medical outcome of such an event.


2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 418-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
David K Allen ◽  
Stan Karanasios ◽  
Alistair Norman

2021 ◽  
pp. 312-324
Author(s):  
Ryszard Piotrowski

The system of governance in contemporary Poland is founded mainly on a negative narrative of distrust. That narrative brought to power the country’s present scaremongering rulers. They continue feeding the public with frightening stories of an influx of refugees, threats of war and terrorist attacks, evils of globalisation and a loss of cultural identity to foreign ways of life. A balance between distrust of rulers and trust in them is part of democracy’s constitutional identity. Those currently in power sow distrust in liberal democracy and its values – they violate the constitution, stir up distrust of elites, and make attempts at bringing the judiciary to heelwhile staging judges bashing propaganda campaigns. Distrust of European law and European institutions is part and parcel of this process. The negative narrative weakens and threatens to disenfranchise civil society, blurring the line between law and lawlessness. It also weakens those in power.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document